tM 


CAPE  ANN  IN  STORY,  LEGEND  AND  SONG 


SECTION  FIVE 


The  Sargent  Family  and  the  Old 
Sargent  Homes 


BY  CHARLES  EDWARD  MANN 


LYNN 

FRANK  S.  WHITTEN 
1919 


Si 


* - I - \ .. 


DUKE  UNIVERSITY  LIBRARY 
DURHAM,  N.  C. 


SARGENT  - MURRAY 
GILMAN  HOUSE  ASSN. 
GLOUCESTER,  MASS, 


CAPE  ANN  IN  STORY,  LEGEND  AND  SONG 


SECTION  FIVE 


The  Sargent  Family  and  the  Old 
Sargent  Homes 


BY  CHARLES  EDWARD  MANN 


LYNN 

FRANK  S,  WHITTEN 
1919 


Digitized  by  the  Internet  Archive 
in  2015 


-v  M 

https://archive.org/details/capeanninstoryle01mann 


GJjXtfe,  t 


rv. 


9 1 4.  tf  j>~ 
d.  z.  3 ? 


PREFATORY  NOTE 


This  publication  is  a part  of  a larger  plan,  under  the 
general  title  of  "Cape  Ann  in  Story  Legend  and  Song,”  and 
five  sections  have  already  been  printed  in  the  Gloucester 
Times.  This  section  is  published  at  this  time  to  meet  the 
wishes  of  many  who  desire  to  have  it  in  a more  permanent 
form. 


y %b7  / ? 


CAPE  ANN 


Cape  Ann!  with  rock-bound,  ocean-girded  strand, 
Breathing  arbutus  and  magnolia  perfume  free — 

From  fields  made  sweet  with  odors  of  the  sea — 
Wafting  the  scent  of  roses  from  the  land. 

Home  of  the  hardy  fisher,  worn  and  tanned — 

The  honey-pink  and  sweet-brier  here  we  see, 

Hiding  ’neath  mossy  rock  or  shadowy  tree, 

And  here  the  laurel.  With  soft  breezes  fanned. 

Out  from  the  harbor  bird-like  schooners  go. 

’Twixt  Ten-Pound  Isle  and  busy  Rocky  Neck, 

Off  to  the  Banks  where  deep  tides  restless  flow; 

And  home  they  come,  their  great  fares  ’neath  the  deck; 
Or  else  on  Brace’s  Rock  or  Norman’s  Woe, 

Storm-driven,  the  seaman  faces  death,  or  wreck. 

Rich  in  romance  the  story  of  her  years — 

Of  Conant  and  the  Planters  from  afar : 

Their  toils  and  sorrows,  of  the  famous  “Jarre” 

The  “Peace  of  Salem,”  bringing  joy  for  fears. 

And  then  the  spectre  garrison  appears  ; 

Peg  Wesson  sails  her  broom-stick  aero-car, 

Grim  revolution  calls  the  fisher-tar 
And  distant  seas  behold  the  privateers. 

Desolate  widows  walk  in  Dogtown’s  street 

And  Sammy  Stanley  sings,  lugubrious,  long; 

Luce  George  and  Judy  Rhines,  the  seers,  repeat 
Their  portents  dire ; Black  Neil  his  tale  of  wrong. 

Then  Whipple,  Rantoul,  Sargent,  Winter,  greet 
The  world  with  essay,  eloquence  and  song. 


Cape  Ann  in  Story,  Legend  and  Song. 

BY  CHARLES  EDWARD  MANN. 

SECTION  FIVE. 

The  Sargent  Family  and  the  Old  Sargent  Homes. 


CHAPTER  ONE. 

THE  SARGENT  FAMILY. 

The  home  of  our  infantile  years. — Samuel  Gilman. 


Oh,  Mother  Earth,  appeas’d,  since  thou 
Back  to  thy  grasping  arms  has  won  him, 

Soft  be  thy  hand,  like  his  and  now 
Lie  thou  in  mercy  lightly  on  him. 

Rochester  was  right;  few  things  were  ever  benefited  by  translation,  but 
a bishop. 

— Lucius  Manlius  Sargent , on  his  own  translation  of  Martial’s  epitaph 
on  a slave-barber. 


At  the  close  of  that  year,  1799 — I was  a small  boy  then — I was  returning 
from  a ride  on  horseback  to  Dorchester  (City)  Point — there  was  no 
bridge,  and  it  was  quite  a journey.  As  I approached  the  town,  I was  very 
much  surprised  at  the  tolling  of  the  bells.  Upon  reaching  home,  I saw 
my  old  father,  at  an  unusual  hour  for  him,  the  busiest  man  alive,  to  be  at 
home,  sitting  alone  in  our  parlor,  with  his  bandana  before  his  eyes.  I ran 
toward  him,  with  the  thoughtless  gaiety  of  youth,  and  asked  what  the 
bells  were  tolling  for.  He  withdrew  his  handkerchief  from  his  face — the 
tears  were  rolling  down  his  fine  old  features — “ Go  away  child,”  said  he, 
“don’t  disturb  me;  do  you  not  know  that  Washington  is  dead?” 

— Anecdote  of  Daniel  Sargent , told  by  his  son. 


6 


CAPE  ANN  IN  STORY  AND  SONG 


— They  buried  out  of  the  city,  and  generally  by  the  wayside.  . . . 

On  the  road  from  Cape  Ann  Harbor  to  Sandy  Bay,  now  Rockport,  are  a 
solitary  grave  and  monument — the  grave  of  one  who  chanced  there  to  die. 
— Dealings  with  the  Dead , page  16. 


The  land  is  no  longer  in  view, 

The  clouds  have  begun  to  frown  ; 

But  with  a stout  vessel  and  crew 
We’ll  say,  Let  the  storm  come  down. 

And  the  song  of  our  hearts  shall  be, 

A home  on  the  rolling  sea; 

A life  on  the  ocean  wave ! 

— Epes  Sargent. 

Farewell!  be  thy  destinies  onward  and  bright! 

To  thy  children  the  lesson  still  give, 

With  freedom  to  think,  and  with  patience  to  bear, 

And  for  right  ever  bravely  to  live. 

Let  not  moss-covered  error  moor  thee  at  its  side 
As  the  world  on  truth’s  current  glides  by  ; 

Be  the  herald  of  light,  and  the  bearer  of  love, 

Till  the  stock  of  the  Puritans  die. 

— “ Fair  Harvard,”  written  for  the  two  hundredth  anniversary  of  Har- 
vard College  by  Samuel  Gilman. 

The  efforts  to  preserve  for  generations  to  come  the  ancient 
Sargent-Murray-Gilman  house  in  Gloucester,  as  a memorial 
to  Samuel  Gilman,  preacher  and  poet  and  author  of  "Fair 
Harvard”;  to  Rev.  John  Murray,  the  apostle  of  Univer- 
salism,  and  Judith  (Sargent)  Murray,  his  gifted  wife  ; and 
as  one  of  the  finest  examples  we  have  of  Colonial  archi- 
tecture, makes  it  appropriate  at  this  time  for  me  to  fulfil 
my  purpose  of  devoting  one  of  the  papers  in  this  series  to 
the  Sargent  family,  which  flourished  in  Gloucester  during 
the  colonial  period. 

SOME  REPRESENTATIVE  HOUSES  OF  THE  SARGENT 
FAMILY 

When  Col.  Epes  Sargent  died,  just  before  the  Revolu- 
tion, his  children  and  grandchildren,  and  those  of  his  sister 
Ann  (Sargent)  Ellery,  were  the  only  living  descendants 


THE  OLD  SARGENT  HOMES 


7 


of  his  father  William,  son  of  the  early  settlers,  William 
and  Mary  (Epes)  Sargent;  but  Col.  Sargent  left  five  sons, 
in  prosperous  circumstances,  and  several  well-married 
daughters.  A century  later,  John  James  Babson, 
Gloucester’s  gifted  and  painstaking  historian,  was  unable 
to  find  any  of  his  descendants  on  Cape  Ann  excepting 
those  of  his  daughters  and  granddaughters  ; but  he  was 
able  to  identify  a number  of  fine  old  mansions  which  had 
been  built  by  the  sons,  and  of  these  the  Sargent-Murray- 
Gilman  house  and  two  others  remain. 

The  oldest  of  these  is  the  building  on  Liberty  street, 
which  two  generations,  at  least,  knew  as  the  Webster 
House.  It  was  the  mansion  of  Col.  Epes  Sargent,  and 
stood  for  something  like  a hundred  years  on  the  site  of  the 
present  Custom  House  and  Post  Office.  Col.  Epes  had  a 
grandson,  bearing  his  name,  who  was  the  first  collector  of 
the  port  of  Gloucester,  who  lived  in  the  house  and  had  his 
office  therein,  so  that  it  might  properly  be  termed 
Gloucester’s  first  Custom  House.  At  a later  date,  we  are 
told,  it  was  for  a time  the  home  of  Robert  Rantoul,  one  of 
the  great  men  of  Essex  County  and  Massachusetts,  who 
was  collector  of  the  port  of  Boston  after  his  removal 
thither,  before  his  distinguished  career  in  Congress,  where 
he  died  in  the  harness,  his  requiem  being  sung  by 
Whittier. 

Another  of  the  Sargent  houses  was  what  was  in  later 
years  known  as  the  Mansfield  House,  the  home  of  Daniel 
Sargent  (son  of  Col.  Epes),  and  later  of  his  son  Ignatius, 
both  of  whom  became  noted  Boston  merchants,  Ignatius 
selling  the  house  to  Capt.  Theodore  Stanwood.  This  long 
stood  on  Rogers  street,  but  its  original  site  was  that  now 
occupied  by  the  Ferguson  block. 

Not  only  the  Sargent-Murray-Gilman  house  should  be 
grouped  with  these,  but  the  Gilbert  Home,  in  which  lived 


8 


CAPE  ANN  IN  STORY  AND  SONG 


Ann,  sister  of  Col.  Epes  Sargent  and  wife  of  Nathaniel 
Ellery  (whose  portrait  was  painted  by  John  Singleton 
Copley,  and  whose  descendants  are  the  only  representa- 
tives of  this  famous  Sargent  family  now  living  on  Cape 
Ann),  and  the  Sawyer  Library  building,  long  the  home  of 
Hon.  Thomas  Saunders,  two  of  whose  daughters  married 
sons  of  Col.  Epes  Sargent. 

FOUR  SARGENT  FAMILIES  IN  NEW  ENGLAND. 

"William  Sargent”  must  have  been  quite  a common 
name  in  England,  especially  about  Northamptonshire,  at 
the  time  of  the  Great  Emigration.  One  William  Sargent 
came  over  in  1629  to  Salem,  and,  with  Ralph  and  William 
Sprague,  joined  Thomas  Walford  at  Mishawam,  or  Charles- 
town. Sargent  lived  in  the  heart  of  what  is  now  Everett 
and,  as  pastor,  gathered  the  flock  which  became  the  first 
church  of  Old  Malden.  Another  William  Sargent  emi- 
grated to  Ipswich  and  eventually  took  up  land  in  that  part 
of  Amesbury  which  is  now  Merrimac.  The  flourishing 
family  of  Sargents  north  of  the  Merrimack  river  claims  no 
connection,  so  far  as  I am  aware,  with  the  descendants  of 
the  two  William  Sargents  who  settled  on  Cape  Ann. 

Long  ago,  in  my  studies  of  Dogtown  families  and  their 
neighbors,  I wrote  of  that  William  Sargent  whose  family 
is  still  numerous  on  the  north  side  of  the  Cape,  and  now 
desire  to  write  of  the  family  of  a fourth  William  Sargent — 
the  most  conspicuous  family  of  the  four — a family  that 
began  in  a runaway  match,  nearly  established  itself  in  Bar- 
badoes,  returned  to  England — perhaps  for  the  Sargent  and 
Epes  parental  blessings — and  then,  by  a son  William,  trans- 
planted itself  to  Cape  Ann,  there  to  flourish  until  long  after 
the  Revolution,  during  which  period  its  members  become  a 
leaven  which  in  a marked  manner  influenced  the  life  of  the 
sturdy  community — commercially,  politically  and  theologi- 
cally. 


THE  OLD  SARGENT  HOMES 


9 


INFLUENCE  OF  SARGENTS  SUSTAINED  REV.  JOHN  MURRAY. 

When  George  Pickering  and  Aaron  Waitt  came  to  preach 
Methodism  in  the  abandoned  Up-in-Town  church,  on  the 
Green  at  Cape  Ann,  they  found  that  another  disciple  of 
John  Wesley,  John  Murray,  (albeit  repudiated  by  the  father 
of  Methodism)  had  beaten  them  in  the  field  by  half  a 
century.  Had  it  not  been  for  the  courage,  intellectual 
force,  influence  and  wealth  of  Winthrop  Sargent  and  the 
devotion  of  his  daughter,  Judith  Sargent,  John  Murray 
would  not  have  found  Cape  Ann  such  a haven  of  rest,  and 
it  is  doubtful  if  Washington  would  have  been  so  firm  in  his 
purpose  of  letting  the  preacher  of  strange  doctrines  serve  as 
a Continental  Army  chaplain. 

Oddly  enough,  most  of  the  early  Wesleyan  preachers 
returned  to  England  at  the  time  of  the  Revolution,  leaving 
Francis  Asbury— the  "prophet  of  the  long  road” — in  the 
South  and  John  Murray  in  the  North  to  preach  their  diver- 
gent versions  of  free  salvation  very  much  by  themselves. 

The  business,  intellectual  and  professional  life  of  Boston 
drew  the  succeeding  generations  of  the  Sargent  family 
away  from  Cape  Ann,  and  few  descendants  of  the  first 
William,  of  Colonel  Epes  and  of  Winthrop  Sargent,  bear- 
ing the  name,  are  there ; but  their  memorials  remain,  in 
the  form  of  still  fine  old  mansions,  churches,  dotted  over 
the  Cape,  in  the  finest  types  of  mortuary  tablets,  and  in 
the  moral  and  intellectual  fibre  of  the  community  life. 

SUCCEEDING  GENERATIONS  BECAME  PROMINENT  IN 
OTHER  LOCALITIES. 

What  is  true  of  Gloucester  is  even  more  abundantly  true 
of  Boston.  The  Arnold  Arboretum  bears  another  name,  to 
be  sure,  but  what  would  it  have  been  had  it  not  had 
for  a lifetime  the  fostering,  developing  oversight  of  Prof. 
Charles  Sprague  Sargent,  whose  lovely  estate,  adjoining, 


IO 


CAPE  ANN  IN  STORY  AND  SONG 


is  more  like  a park  than  any  public  park  about  Boston,  as 
thousands  who  visit  it,  annually,  can  testify.  He  is  the  son 
of  Ignatius  Sargent,  who  was  born  in  Gloucester  in  1800 
and  was  for  twenty-eight  years  president  of  the  Globe 
bank  in  Boston. 

I noticed  in  the  list  of  donors  to  the  Sargent-Murray- 
Gilman  fund,  recently,  the  name  of  Fitz  William  Sargent. 
The  oldest  son  of  the  first  William  was  Fitz  William. 
The  father  of  John  Singer  Sargent,  the  painter,  was  Fitz 
William  Sargent.  The  name  " Epes  ” appeared  in  the 
third  generation,  of  course  from  the  marriage  of  the  first 
William  Sargent  and  Mary  Epes,  and  there  have  been 
Epes  Sargents  ever  since,  the  latest  a well-known 
dramatist. 

Since  I commenced  this  study  of  the  Sargents,  I have 
seen  a query  in  the  Boston  Transcipt  as  to  whether  any 
members  of  the  family  of  Winthrop  Sargent,  the  eminent 
writer  of  Philadelphia,  were  living.  He  was  grandson  of 
Gov.  Winthrop  Sargent  of  Mississippi,  who  got  his  name 
from  his  father,  Capt.  Winthrop  Sargent  of  Gloucester, 
who  was  named  for  his  father,  Col.  Epes  Sargent’s, 
brother,  Winthrop  (son  of  the  original  settler  William)  and 
there  have  always  been  Winthrop  Sargents.  The  present 
Winthrop  Sargent  of  Philadelphia  heads  the  subscriptions 
for  the  Sargent-Murray-Gilman  house. 

Good  old  Daniel  Sargent  named  a younger  son  Lucius 
Manlius,  and,  but  three  years  ago,  the  latest  Lucius 
Manlius  Sargent  graduated  from  Harvard  University. 
Col.  Epes  Sargent  married,  for  his  second  wife,  Catherine 
Winthrop,  widow  of  Hon.  Samuel  Browne,  a descendant 
of  Gov.  Winthrop  and  granddaughter  of  Gov.  Thomas 
Dudley.  She  named  her  son  Paul  Dudley  Sargent,  and 
Paul  Dudley  Sargents  and  Dudley  Sargents  are  also 
numerous  and  influential. 


THE  OLD  SARGENT  HOMES 


1 1 


CHAPTER  TWO 

THE  OLD  SARGENT  MANSIONS. 

By  each  tented  roof,  a charger’s  hoof 
Makes  the  frosted  hill-side  ring  ; 

Give  the  bugle  breath,  and  a spirit  of  Death 
To  each  horse’s  girth  will  spring. 

— Horace  Binney  Sargent. 

Let  us  now  consider  more  in  detail  the  homes  of  the 
Sargent  family  in  Gloucester,  the  owners  or  occupants,  and 
their  descendants. 

A century  and  a half  ago,  much  of  what  we  would  now 
call  the  heart  of  Gloucester — at  the  Harbor,  of  course, 
belonged  to  the  Sargent  family.  Its  boundaries  were, 
roughly,  these  : Beginning  at  the  foot  of  Duncan  street  and 
running  along  the  shore  to  Vinson’s  Cove  ; thence  diagon- 
ally to  the  corner  of  Chestnut  and  Prospect  street — then 
Back  street — along  that  street  to  Pleasant  and  through 
Pleasant  and  Duncan  streets  to  the  point  of  beginning.  It 
had  been  the  farm  of  William  Sargent,  second,  son  of  the 
runaway  pair,  William  and  Mary  (Epes)  Sargent,  already 
mentioned.  At  the  shore  front  were  the  wharves  and 
warehouses  of  the  Sargents.  Winthrop  Sargent  owned  the 
brig  "King  of  Prussia”  and  Epes  Sargent  the  snow 
" Charlotte,”  the  only  square-rigged  vessels  belonging  to 
Gloucester. 

THE  COL.  SARGENT  HOUSE. 

At  the  corner  of  Spring  (now  Main)  and  Pleasant  streets, 
on  the  site  of  the  postoffice  and  custom-house,  stood  the 
mansion  of  Col.  Epes  Sargent,  occupied  by  his  descendants 
for  two  generations.  It  was  turned  around  in  later  years, 
and  removed  to  the  rear  of  the  lot.  Many  will  recall  it  as 
the  Webster  House.  Twenty-five  years  ago  it  was  removed 


12 


CAPE  ANN  IN  STORY  AND  SONG 


to  Liberty  street.  My  lamented  friend,  Warren  P.  Dudley, 
Esq.,  for  thirty-three  years  secretary  of  the  civil  service 
commission  (who  commenced  his  practice  of  law  in  Glou- 
cester) used  to  repeat  with  great  gusto  a colloquy  between 
its  owner,  Nathaniel  Webster,  and  the  building  mover,  the 
late  Mayor  Parsons,  when  the  ancient  building,  still  occu- 
pied by  Mr.  Webster,  was  on  its  journey,  the  story  being 
very  characteristic  of  both  the  principals. 

Mr.  Babson  speaks  of  the  Col.  Epes  Sargent  house  as 
standing,  with  various  alterations,  "until  recent  times,” 
on  the  spot  where  it  was  erected,  but  in  the  same  connec- 
tion speaks  of  it  as  still  standing  on  Pleasant  street. 

I have  already  partially  explained  the  reason  (other  than 
pride  in  the  exploit  of  Mary  Epes)  which  causes  the 
recurrence  of  the  name  "Epes”  in  each  generation. 
William  Sargent,  the  second,  married  Mary  Duncan, 
daughter  of  Peter,  whose  name  is  perpetuated  in  Duncan 
street,  the  marriage  being  solemnized  by  her  grandfather, 
Deputy  Governor  Symonds.  The  pair  had  fourteen 
children,  but  Col.  Epes  Sargent  was  the  only  one  who 
left  descendents  bearing  the  name  of  Sargent.  The 
colonel  won  his  military  title  after  he  had  removed  from 
Gloucester  to  Salem,  where  he  died  in  1762.  His  body 
was  buried  in  the  ancient  parish  burying  ground  in 
Gloucester. 

His  son  Epes,  father  of  the  Collector  of  the  Port,  and 
owner  of  the  largest  number  of  vessels  of  any  of  the 
family,  married  Catherine,  daughter  of  Hon.  John  Osborne 
of  Boston.  He  became  a storm-center  during  the  Revo- 
lution, having  been  a loyalist,  and,  with  his  brother 
Winthrop,  tasted  some  of  the  bitterness  of  religious  perse- 
cution, through  his  support  of  the  doctrines  of  Rev.  John 
Murray.  No  one  in  this  day,  when  we  find  ourselves  so 
closely  allied  with  the  Mother  Country,  will  be  disposed 


THE  OLD  SARGENT  HOMES 


13 


to  quarrel  with  the  warm  eulogy  of  Mr.  Babson,  who  says 
he  endured  political  obloquy  and  reproach,  and  the  effects 
of  religeous  bigotry  and  intolerance,  " as  seeing  Him  who 
is  invisible,”  and  "rich  in  faith  and  the  memories  of  a just 
and  pure  life,  passed  away  to  the  tomb.” 

THE  DIVISION  OF  COL.  EPES  SARGENT’S  PROPERTY. 

Epes  Sargent,  Esq.,  evidently  became  an  occupant  of 
the  ancestral  mansion  upon  the  removal  of  his  father  to 
Salem.  When  Col.  Epes  Sargent  died,  he  left  no  will, 
but  a very  large  property,  as  stated.  This  was  divided 
between  his  sons  and  daughters,  his  landed  and  other 
estate  being  parted  into  four  divisions. 

The  first  of  these,  including  the  homestead  property  at 
the  corner  of  Spring  and  Cross  (or  Pleasant)  streets,  which 
he  occupied,  was  selected  by  the  elder  son.  The  latter 
also  received  another  parcel  of  land  on  the  south  side  of 
Fore  (or  Spring)  street,  best  described  as  between  Water 
and  Pearce  streets,  and  including  the  wharf  property, 
which  he  later  sold  to  Col.  William  Pearce,  and  which 
the  steamboats  now  use. 

This  was  so  much  more  valuable  than  some  of  the  other 
parts  allotted  that  he  agreed  to  pay  over  371  pounds  in 
money  to  his  sister,  Sarah  Allen,  16  pounds  to  his  brother, 
Col.  Paul  Dudley  Sargent,  later  a resident  of  the  District 
of  Maine,  and  2 pounds,  13  shillings,  to  his  brother,  John 
Sargent,  who  received  no  land  in  the  division,  The  total 
value  of  the  property  he  received  from  his  father’s  estate 
was  1226  pounds,  13  shillings  and  4 pence. 

At  the  time  of  the  division,  177 6,  his  neighbor  on  the  east 
was  Captain  Bradbury  Saunders,  brother  of  Hon.  Thomas 
Saunders,  and  on  the  north  John  Stacy.  Mr.  Babson 
assumes  the  latter  to  have  been  the  father  of  Deacon 
Nymphas  Stacy,  who  married  Hannah  Littlehale,  which 


H 


CAPE  ANN  IN  STORY  AND  SONG 


assumption  seems  to  be  proved  by  the  fact  that  one  descrip- 
tion of  the  Col.  Sargent  homestead  property  shows  it  to 
have  been  bounded  by  land  of  Nymphas  Stacy  and  a 
Littlehale. 

When  Epes  Sargent,  Esq.,  died,  it  was  found  that  his 
estate  was  insufficient  to  meet  his  indebtedness.  In  1820, 
Fitz  William  Sargent,  son  of  Capt.  Winthrop  Sargent,  sold 
to  his  daughter,  Judith  Williams,  wife  of  David  Williams, 
for  $3,750,  the  dwelling  house  and  land  at  the  Harbor  in 
Gloucester  from  the  south  corner  of  Epes  Ellery’s  land  on 
Fore  street  to  the  corner  of  Pleasant  street,  and  along 
Pleasant  street  to  Capt.  Joseph  Tucker’s  land. 

Epes  Ellery  was  great-grandnephew  and  namesake  of 
Col.  Epes  Sargent,  and  the  ancient  home  of  his  grandfather, 
Nathaniel  Ellery,  and  grandmother,  Ann  (Sargent)  Ellery, 
was  given  to  him  by  his  father,  a second  Nathaniel  Ellery, 
in  1836.  It  stood  at  the  corner  of  Main  and  Hancock 
streets,  and  so  could  not  have  been  the  land  referred  to  in 
the  Fitz  William  Sargent  deed  ; therefore  that  sale  must 
have  been  of  the  Col.  Epes  Sargent  property.  Judith 
Williams  was  a widow  when  signing  a deed,  as  an  heir  to 
her  father’s  property,  in  1826.  Capt.  Ellery  lived  many 
years  in  a house  adjoining  the  Col.  Sargent  house,  as 
related  in  a later  chapter. 

Epes  Sargent,  the  loyalist,  had  a son  John  Osborne,  who 
married  Lydia,  daughter  of  Col.  Joseph  Foster,  and  left 
an  only  son,  Epes,  father  of  that  Epes  Sargent  (whose 
school  readers  were  my  text-books  in  early  days) , editor 
author  and  poet,  who  seems  best  known  in  Gloucester  by 
his  song,  "A  Life  on  the  Ocean  Wave.” 

"I  recollect,”  once  said  the  honored  Benjamin  K.  Hough 
to  Lucius  Manlius  Sargent,  " when  a boy,  of  seeing  your 
uncle,  Epes  Sargent.  He  was  a good  friend  to  my  widowed 
mother,  and  took  two  of  my  brothers  and  brought  them  up. 
He  died  of  smallpox  in  the  old  war.” 


THE  OLD  SARGENT  HOMES 


15 


THE  WINTHROP  SARGENT  HOUSE. 

In  the  division  of  the  Col.  Epes  Sargent  estate,  the 
second  share  was  taken  by  the  colonel’s  son,  Capt. 
Winthrop  Sargent,  father  of  Judith  Sargent  (who 
married  Rev.  John  Murray  and  became  mistress  of  the 
Sargent-Murray-Gilman  house),  of  Gen.  Winthrop  Sar- 
gent, governor  of  Mississippi,  and  of  Fitz  William  Sar- 
gent (great-grandfather  of  John  Singer  Sargent),  who 
succeeded  to  his  father’s  business  and  at  one  time  was  the 
owner  of  80  merchant  vessels.  Capt.  Sargent’s  mansion 
stood  at  the  corner  of  what  is  now  Main  and  Duncan  streets, 
and  his  land  extended  to  Duncan’s  point,  including 
extensive  wharf  property  there. 

It  appears  to  me  that  this  portion  of  the  great  estate 
must  have  come  to  the  colonel  by  inheritance  from  Peter 
Duncan,  his  father-in-law.  At  his  father’s  death,  this 
property  had  been  "improved”  by  Capt.  Sargent,  but  his 
fine  mansion  house  was  not  built  until  a later  date.  The 
division  mentions  only  a barn,  and  one  may  be  excused 
for  wondering  if  Winthrop  Sargent  did  not  build  the  Sar- 
gent-Murray-Gilman house  (which  he  certainly  owned,  as 
shown  by  the  fact  that  it  was  sold  to  Frederick  Gilman  in 
1 797  by  his  heirs,  including  John  and  Judith  (Sargent) 
Murray)  for  his  own  occupancy.  The  Winthrop  Sargent 
share  in  the  division  included  other  land,  and  was  valued 
at  737  pounds.  The  mansion  and  wharf  passed  to  Fitz 
William  Sargent  upon  the  death  of  his  father,  his  mother, 
Anna  Sargent,  in  1826  releasing  to  her  husband’s  heirs  all 
her  interest  in  his  property  and  taking  in  return  property 
at  the  corner  of  Water  and  Fore  streets. 

The  next  owner  of  the  property  was  Winthrop,  son  of 
Fitz  William  Sargent,  who  after  a successful  career  as  a 
merchant,  failed,  and  mortgaged  in  1829  both  the  home- 
stead property  and  his  house  on  Middle  street  near  School 


i6 


CAPE  ANN  IN  STORY  AND  SONG 


street  to  Ignatius  (son  of  Daniel)  Sargent  and  Peter  Char- 
don  Brooks  of  Boston.  In  1834,  he  sold  all  his  Gloucester 
property  to  David  Pingree  of  Salem  and  established 
himself  in  Philadelphia. 

His  son,  Fitz  William  Sargent,  born  in  Gloucester,  became 
a successful  physician  in  Philadelphia,  retired  from  practice 
and  went  to  Europe,  where,  in  Florence,  his  son,  John 
Singer  Sargent,  was  born.  The  son  grew  up  and  has 
spent  his  life  in  London,  where  Dr.  Sargent  died.  In  1864 
there  appeared  in  London  a book  of  184  pages  entitled 
"England,  the  United  States  and  the  Southern  Confed- 
eracy,” by  " Fitzwilliam  Sargent,  M.  D.,  of  Philadelphia,” 
it  being  a study  of  conditions  in  this  country  preceding 
the  civil  war,  the  purpose  being  to  make  clear  to  the  British 
public  the  necessity  of  the  abolition  of  slavery  and  the 
preservation  of  the  Union.  I hope  the  Sawyer  Free 
Library  has  in  its  possession  a copy  of  this  fine  contribution 
to  the  literature  to  Civil  War  days,  by  one  of  her  too  little 
known  sons,  whose  fame  is  well-nigh  obscured  by  that  of 
his  own  brilliant  son. 

Eventually  much  of  the  "homestead”  property  (as  it  is 
always  called  in  the  records)  of  Capt.  Winthrop  Sargent 
passed  into  the  hands  of  Benjamin  K.  Hough,  who  had 
already  purchased  some  of  the  Daniel  Sargent  property,  to 
be  next  described.  Mr.  Hough  was  a partner  of  Fitz 
William  Sargent,  owned  at  his  death  the  land  now  com- 
prised in  the  Stage  Fort  Memorial  Park,  and  lived  for  40 
years  in  the  Sargent-Murray-Gilman  house. 

THE  DANIEL  SARGENT  HOUSE. 

The  third  portion  of  Col.  Epes  Sargent’s  estate  was 
allotted  to  his  son  Daniel.  It  comprised  land  on  the  north 
side  of  Fore  street,  adjoining  the  mansion  house  property, 
and  bounded  on  the  west  by  land  of  Joseph  Littlehale,  and 


THE  OLD  SARGENT  HOMES 


17 


also  the  property  on  the  south  side  of  the  main  street 
between  that  of  Capt.  Winthrop  Sargent  and  Epes  Sargent, 
Esq.,  already  described.  He  also  received  land  on  Back 
street,  apparently  in  the  present  vicinity  of  Warner  street, 
and  pew  No.  84  in  the  Harbor  meeting  house,  valued  by 
the  appraisers  at  17  pounds,  six  shillings  and  eight  pence. 
The  whole  share  was  valued  at  644  pounds,  six  shillings 
and  eight  pence. 

Daniel  Sargent’s  mansion  house  stood,  as  stated,  on  the  site 
of  the  Ferguson  block,  was  later  owned  by  Capt.  Theodore 
Stanwood  and  I last  saw  it  on  Rogers  street,  before  its 
demolition.  To  Epes  Sargent, Esq.,  must  be  given  thecredit 
of  first  entertaining  Rev.  John  Murray;  to  Capt.  Winthrop 
Sargent,  the  credit  of  leading  in  the  fight  to  secure  standing 
and  fair  play  for  Murray,  and  to  Daniel  Sargent  the  credit 
of  furnishing  the  site  for  the  first  chapel  of  the  Christian 
Independents,  adjoining  his  house. 

We  know  far  more  about  Daniel  Sargent  than  about  any 
of  the  other  sons  of  Col.  Epes  Sargent — how  he  looked, 
how  he  talked,  what  he  said,  for  he  was  the  father  of 
several  gifted  sons,  one  of  whom,  Lucius  Manlius  Sargent, 
took  particular  delight  in  honoring  his  father’s  memory  in 
print.  He  frequently  referred  to  his  fine  personal  appear- 
ance (an  endowment  which  he  transmitted  to  the  son),  his 
patriotism,  his  goodness  of  heart,  his  generosity  to  the  needy 
and  deserving.  After  many  years  of  business  success  in 
Gloucester,  Daniel  Sargent  established  himself  in  business 
in  Boston,  bought  a home  in  the  vicinity  of  Lincoln  and 
Essex  streets,  became  a devout  attendant  at  the  " Old 
Brick”  (First)  church,  opposite  the  old  State  House  on 
Cornhill,  now  Washington  street,  living  long  and  happily. 

"Daniel  Sargent,”  said  John  Hannibal  Sheppard,  "wore 
a cue  about  12  inches  long,  and  a toupee  which  was  parted 
in  curls  about  the  ears,  often  powdered  in  the  fashion  of 


l8  CAPE  ANN  IN  STORY  AND  SONG 

the  day.  His  ordinary  dress  was  a grey  broadcloth  coat, 
grey  or  black  silk  vest,  grey  kerseymere  small  clothes  and 
grey  silk  stockings,  with  silver  shoe  and  knee  buckles;  or 
in  wet  or  cold  weather,  white  top  boots  and  a white  neck- 
stock,  and  a cocked  hat,  until  late  in  life  he  changed  it  to 
a white  broad  brimmed  hat  in  summer  or  a black  one  in 
winter,  On  the  Sabbath  or  in  company  he  put  on  a blue 
coat  with  metal  buttons,  a white  vest  and  white  stockings. 
He  was  stout,  but  not  corpulent ; five  feet  ten  inches  in 
height,  erect,  with  a broad  chest,  and  blessed  with  a robust 
constitution.” 


THE  OLD  SARGENT  HOMES 


J9 


CHAPTER  THREE 

LUCIUS  MANLIUS  AND  HORACE  BINNEY  SARGENT. 

Swift  the  manly  torrent  pours, 

In  frothy  billows,  proudly  tost ; 

And,  ’midst  life’s  troubled  ocean,  roars, 

Till,  all,  in  noise,  is  lost. 

— L.  M.  S. 

Many  years  ago,  one  of  the  finest  gentlemen  of  the  old 
school  who  ever  lived  in  Boston,  Lucius  Manlius  Sargent, 
came  to  Gloucester  with  his  son,  later  to  be  known  to  fame 
as  Gen.  Horace  Binney  Sargent,  and  sought  out  the  grave 
of  his  grandfather,  Col.  Epes  Sargent,  in  the  old  parish 
burying  ground,  near  the  railroad  track.  The  two  men 
arranged  at  that  time  for  the  construction  of  the  tomb 
which  now  marks  Col.  Sargent’s  resting  place. 

Lucius  Manlius  Sargent  was  not  only  a gentleman,  but 
a scholar,  and  it  is  not  strange,  therefore,  that  later  he 
added  the  ornate  marble  slab  and  composed  the  elaborate 
epitaph  for  Col.  Sargent  that  will  well  repay  a visit  and 
perusal  by  anyone  interested  in  the  history,  biography  and 
traditions  of  old  Gloucester. 

Sargent’s  brother,  Hon.  Daniel  Sargent,  provided  the  fine 
wrought-iron  gate  and  the  wall  at  the  entrance  of  the  older 
part  of  the  cemetery,  near  his  grandsire’s  memorial.  The 
whole  proceeding  was  characteristic,  for  whatever  may  be 
said  of  the  accomplishments  and  fame  of  the  present 
generation  of  Sargents,  the  fine  old  Colonial  family 
flowered  in  Lucius  Manlius,  and  nineteenth  century  Bos- 
ton, rich  in  men  of  culture,  in  scholars,  in  poets,  had  no 
finer  example  of  the  culture  which  then  won  her  the  title 
of  the  "Athens  of  America,”  than  he.  Finely  educated, 
the  heir  to  a fortune,  the  foundation  of  which  was  laid  in 
Gloucester  by  his  father,  Daniel  Sargent,  he  chose  to  live 
the  life  of  a scholar  rather  than  of  a merchant  prince,  and, 


20 


CAPE  ANN  IN  STORY  AND  SONG 


in  his  richly-stored  library  at  Rock  Hill,  in  Roxbury, 
spent  happy  years  of  leisurely  study  and  scholarly 
production. 

That  he  read  and  absorbed  the  best  authors  is  shown  by 
his  published  books.  Near  me  as  I write  are  the  two- 
volume  collections  of  his  Boston  Transcript  articles, 
written  through  many  years,  which  he  whimsically 
entitled  "Dealings  with  the  Dead.” 

He  was  a lawyer  by  training  ; he  might  easily  have  been 
a clergyman  or  a great  teacher.  He  had  the  wit  of  a 
humorist,  a quick  eye  to  detect  an  odd  situtation  and  the 
power  to  make  its  description  a fine  art.  He  was  equally 
ready  to  respond  to  pathos,  and  while  generally  refraining 
from  the  use  of  poetry,  except  as  a quotation,  wrote  often 
a form  of  prose  that  was  itself  poetry. 

A PROFITABLE  LAND  SPECULATION. 

Nothing  escaped  his  attention ; and  he  did  not  leave  to 
others  the  preservation  of  what  he  saw  or  learned.  The 
four-volume  " Memorial  History  of  Boston,”  says  little  of 
him.  Could  he  have  lived  ten  years  longer,  it  would  have 
had,  undoubtedly,  chapters  from  his  pen.  As  it  is,  much 
of  it  would  hardly  have  been  written  had  he  not  furnished 
the  author’s  facts  or  pointed  the  way  to  sources  of  infor- 
mation. " Sigma”  was  his  favorite  nom-de-plume.  At  the 
end  of  his  two-volume  book,  referred  to  above,  apparently 
published  annonymously,  he  placed  a half-page  preface, 
to  which  he  appended  his  name. 

To  illustrate  his  facility  in  both  making  and  preserving 
history,  Dr.  Shurtleff,  in  his  "Topographical  and  Historical 
Description  of  Boston,”  says  : 

"In  November,  1830,  a gentleman  of  the  old  school, 
well  known  in  this  community  for  his  literary  productions, 
the  emanations  of  a powerful  mind  drawn  by  an  equally 


THE  OLD  SARGENT  HOMES 


21 


powerful  pen,  was  taking  his  customary  ride  to  his  country 
seat,  and  was,  undoubtedly,  pondering  in  his  mind  what 
new  theme  he  should  next  write  upon,  when  his  attention 
was  drawn,  a short  distance  north  of  the  Roxbury  line,  to 
a small  assemblage  of  persons,  and  what,  to  his  discerning 
eye,  appeared  to  be  an  auctioneer  in  the  form  of  the  well- 
remembered  Stephen  Brown.  Curiosity,  a predominant 
faculty  of  the  gentleman,  Lucius  M.  Sargent,  Esq.,  who 
was  never  afraid  to  have  his  name  used  properly  in  illus- 
tration, at  once  checked  his  progress,  and  making  his  way 
to  the  gathering,  he  preceived  that  a land  sale  was  going 
on;  and  being  of  a speculative  disposition,  when  specula- 
tion is  a reality,  he  joined  in  the  bidding,  and  to  his  sur- 
prise, he  became  the  purchaser  of  three  acres,  three-quarters 
and  eight  rods  of  land,  165,526  feet,  between  the  present 
Shawmut  avenue  and  Tremont  street,  for  the  small  sum  of 
$263.80.” 

That  is,  one  mill  and  a half  per  foot.  Dr.  Shurtleff, 
forty  years  ago,  thought  the  land  would  sell  for  three 
thousand  times  the  price  Mr.  Sargent  gave  for  it. 

The  above  is  one  incident  of  many,  showing  the  nature 
of  the  man.  He  was  proud  of  his  family,  of  its  associa- 
tion, from  its  planting  in  Gloucester  to  his  own  day,  with 
commerce  and  enterprise,  with  literature  and  art ; but,  he 
says,  " the  most  beautiful  trait  of  character,  which  has 
been  prominent  in  all  the  history  of  the  individuals  of  so 
ancient  and  numerous  a progeny,  from  William  Sargent 
the  first,  is  the  noble  and  high-minded  integrity  with  which 
they  have  been  distinguished.”  The  finest  type  of  the 
traits  he  thus  depicted  was  Lucius  Manlius  Sargent  himself. 

Mr.  Sargent  was  a great  admirer  of  President  John 
Adams,  as  many  references  in  his  writings  testify.  A 
young  lady  once  asked  him  to  write  in  her  autograph 
album.  Turning  the  leaves,  he  came  to  the  autograph  of 
Adams,  and  he  immediately  wrote  beneath  it : 


22 


CAPE  ANN  IN  STORY  AND  SONG 


“ Sighs  not  the  gentle  heart  to  save 
The  sage,  the  patriot,  from  the  grave! 

“ If  thus,  oh  then  recall  that  sigh, 

Unholy  ’tis  and  vain; 

For  saints  and  sages  never  die, 

But  sleep,  to  rise  again. 

Life  is  a lengthened  day,  at  best, 

And  in  the  grave  tired  travellers  rest ; 

Till,  with  his  trump,  to  wake  the  dead 
Th’  appointed  angel  flies; 

Then  Heav’n’s  bright  album  shall  be  spread; 

And  all  who  sleep,  shall  rise; 

The  blest  to  Zion’s  Hill  repair 

And  write  their  names  immortal  there.” 

An  example  of  his  terse  comments  : 

" I had  rather  be  the  author  of  ' Hush-a-bye  baby,  upon 
the  tree  top,’  than  of  Joel  Barlow’s  'Vision  of  Columbus’” 
— for,  though  I have  always  perceived  the  propriety  of 
putting  babies  to  sleep,  at  proper  times,  I have  never 
entirely  appreciated  the  wisdom  of  doing  the  very  same 
thing  to  adults,  at  all  hours  of  the  day.” 


POEM  BY  GEN.  HORACE  BINNEY  SARGENT. 

Lucius  Manlius  Sargent’s  fine  traits  descended  to  his 
son,  Gen.  Horace  Binney  Sargent,  soldier  and  orator — 
yes,  and  poet.  In  the  Atlantic  Monthly  for  May,  1863, 
he  published  " After  Taps,”  which  pictures  the  spirit  of  the 
man  as  clearly  as  a column  of  personal  description  : 

“Tramp!  Tramp!  Tramp!  Tramp! 

As  I lay  with  my  blanket  on, 

By  the  dim  fire-light  in  the  moonlit  night, 

When  the  skirmishing  fight  was  done. 

The  measured  beat  of  the  sentry’s  feet 
With  the  jingling  scabbard’s  ring! 

Tramp!  Tramp!  in  my  meadow-camp, 

By  the  Shenandoah’s  spring. 


THE  OLD  SARGENT  HOMES 


23 


The  moonlight  seems  to  shed  cold  beams 
On  a row  of  pale  grave-stones  ! 

Give  the  bugle  breath,  and  that  image  of  Death 
Will  fly  from  the  reveille’s  tones. 

* * * * 

Tramp ! Tramp ! Tramp  Tramp ! 

The  sentry,  before  my  tent, 

Guards,  in  gloom,  his  chief,  for  whom 
Its  shelter,  tonight  is  lent. 

I am  not  there.  On  the  hi  11-side  bare, 

I think  of  the  ghost  within  ; 

Of  the  brave  who  died,  at  my  sword-hand  side 
Today,  ’mid  the  horrible  din. 

* * * * 

I thought  of  a blossoming  almond  tree 
The  stateliest  tree  that  I know, 

Of  a golden  bowl ; of  a parted  soul ; 

And  a lamp,  that  is  burning  low. 

* * * * 

Of  my  pride  and  joy — my  oldest  boy; 

Of  my  darling,  the  second  in  years  ; 

Of  Willie,  whose  face,  with  its  pure,  mild  grace, 

Melts  memory  into  tears  ; 

Of  their  mother,  my  bride,  by  the  Alpine  lake’s  side, 

And  the  angel  asleep  in  her  arms  ; 

Love,  Beauty  and  Truth,  which  she  brought  to  my  youth, 

In  that  sweet  April  day  of  her  charms. 

* * . * * 

Tramp!  Tramp!  Tramp!  Tramp! 

With  a solemn  pendulum  swing; 

Though  I slumber  all  night,  the  fire  burns  bright, 

And  my  sentinel’s  scabbards  ring. 

‘Boots  and  saddle’  is  sounding.  Our  pulses  are  bounding! 

‘To  horse!’  And  I touch  with  my_heel 

Black  Gray  in  the  flanks,  and  ride  down  the  ranks. 

With  my  heart,  like  my  sabre,  of  steel.” 

Prof.  Walter  Sargent,  a grandson  of  Gen.  Horace 
Binney  Sargent,  now  of  Chicago,  but  for  many  years  state 
supervisor  of  drawing  in  Massachusetts,  was  born  in 
Worcester  in  1863,  and  besides  being  a college  professor 
has  shown  notable  paintings  in  many  fine  exhibitions. 


24 


CAPE  ANN  IN  STORY  AND  SONG 


HOW  AN  OUTLAWED  DEBT  WAS  DISCHARGED. 

In  his  best-known  book,  "Dealings  with  the  Dead,” 
Lucius  Manlius  Sargent  tells  at  length  the  story  of  the 
discovery,  after  his  father,  Daniel  Sargent’s,  death,  in  1806, 
of  a package  of  papers,  labelled  " notes,  due-bills  and 
accounts  against  sundry  persons,  down  along  shore. 
Some  of  these  may  be  got  by  suit  or  severe  dunning. 
But  the  people  are  poor : most  of  them  have  had  fisher- 
men’s luck.  My  children  will  do  as  they  think  best. 
Perhaps  they  will  think  with  me,  that  it  is  best  to  burn 
this  package  entire.”  After  a list  of  the  names,  dates  and 
amounts  of  the  bills  had  been  prepared,  that  the  debtors 
might  be  told  their  debts  were  forgiven,  the  bills,  amount- 
ing, with  interest,  to  over  $32,000,  were  committed  to  the 
flames. 

Months  after,  a hard-favored  little  old  man  from  Cape 
Cod  came  in,  produced  an  ancient  leather  pocket-book  and 
took  therefrom  between  $700  and  $800.  John  Turner 
Sargent,  who,  as  the  eldest  son,  acted  as  administrator  of  the 
elder  Sargent’s  estate,  was  told  that  the  stranger  had  come 
to  pay  a note  owed  to  the  old  man’s  heirs,  looked  at  his 
list,  and  found  the  debtor’s  name.  He  told  him  the  note 
was  outlawed,  but  was  told  the  debtor  wished  to  pay  it. 
Then  the  son  explained  the  whole  story,  and  said  the  note 
had  been  destroyed. 

With  joy,  the  happy  old  gentleman  related  the  story  of 
the  long  efforts  to  save  the  money,  ending  with  the  sale  of 
a cow  to  procure  the  last  $20,  and  went  on  his  way  rejoic- 
ing. The  son  told  of  one  of  the  brothers,  who  was  present, 
that  he  would  gladly  pay  him  his  share  of  the  loss  for  the 
pleasure  derived  from  the  incident. 


THE  OLD  SARGENT  HOMES 


25 


OTHER  DESCENDANTS  OF  DANIEL  SARGENT. 

Daniel  Sargent’s  son  Daniel,  as  stated,  became  state 
treasurer  of  Massachusetts,  and  his  portrait  is  preserved  at 
the  State  House.  A second  son,  Ignatius,  apparently- 
succeeded  to  his  father’s  Gloucester  business,  but  eventu- 
ally engaged  in  business  in  Boston.  His  son,  also  named 
Ignatius,  for  twenty  years  president  of  the  Globe  bank  in 
Boston,  was  father  of  Prof.  Charles  Sprague  Sargent  of 
Harvard  College,  the  eminent  arborculturist,  whose  lovely 
estate  in  Brookline  is  so  popular  a resort  in  the  rhododen- 
dron season,  and  who  is  chiefly  responsible  for  the 
development  of  the  Arnold  Arboretum.  Prof.  Sargent’s 
grandmother  was  Sarah  Ellery,  daughter  of  Capt. 
Winthrop  Sargent’s  second  daughter,  Esther. 

John  Turner  Sargent,  son  of  Daniel,  whom  William 
Sullivan,  his  brother-in-law  and  son  of  Governor  Sullivan, 
termed  one  "who  was  born  to  be  a nobleman,”  was  father 
of  another  John  Turner  Sargent,  a well-known  Unitarian 
clergyman. 

Franklin  Haven  Sargent,  son  of  Rev.  John  Turner 
Sargent,  is.  dramatic  director  of  the  Madison  Square 
Theatre,  New  York,  and  has  been  president  of  the 
American  Academy  of  Dramatic  Arts  since  1884. 

Henry  Sargent,  still  another  son  of  Daniel  and  brother 
of  Lucius  Manlius  Sargent,  was  a painter  from  his  boy- 
hood, when  his  decorations  adorned  the  garden  summer 
house  of  Daniel  Sargent’s  mansion  near  High  Street  in 
Boston.  Besides  his  noted  painting,  "The  Landing  of 
the  Pilgrims,”  in  Memorial  Hall  at  Plymouth,  he  painted 
the  best  known  portrait  of  Peter  Faneuil,  now  in  the  Bos- 
ton Museum  of  Fine  Arts.  His  son,  Col.  Henry  Winthrop 
Sargent,  lived  in  Fishkill,  N.  Y.,  and  wrote  much  on  hor- 
ticultural subjects.  Another  son,  Turner  Sargent,  married 


2 6 


CAPE  ANN  IN  STORY  AND  SONG 


Miss  Amelia  Jackson  Holmes,  daughter  of  the  poet,  Dr. 
Oliver  Wendell  Holmes. 

Of  another  of  his  brothers  who  died  early,  Lucius 
Manlius  Sargent  wrote  : 

“ Though  Heaven  to  both  did  equal  love  impart, 

Yet  greater  gifts  were  thine,  and  happier  doom, 

A riper  genius  and  a purer  heart, 

A life  more  virtuous,  and  an  earlier  tomb.” 


THE  COL.  PAUL  DUDLEY  SARGENT  HOUSE. 

The  recipient  of  the  fourth  parcel  in  the  division  of  the 
land  and  other  property  of  Col.  Epes  Sargent  was  his  son, 
Col.  Paul  Dudley  Sargent,  and  it  consisted  of  land  and 
shore  from  the  line  of  his  brother  Epes  to  Vinson’s  Cove. 
Mr.  Babson  gives  no  hint  of  Col.  Paul  Dudley  Sargent 
ever  having  lived  on  any  part  of  the  original  Sargent 
property,  but  we  have  the  testimony  of  his  nephew,  Lucius 
Manilus  Sargent,  that  at  the  time  of  the  Revolution  there 
were  not  only  the  three  mansions  already  referred  to  on 
Front  street,  but  two  others,  and  that  the  five  mansions 
faced  each  other  on  opposite  sides  of  the  street.  This  would 
place  Col.  Paul  Dudley  Sargent  in  a house  on  the  north 
side  of  Fore  street,  not  far  from  his  ancestral  home.  This 
propert}'  the  second  Col.  Sargent  sold  in  1800  to  Samuel 
Rogers.  Col.  Sargent  married  Lucy,  daughter  of  Hon. 
Thomas  Sanders.  His  half-brother,  Winthrop  Sargent, 
married  Lucy  Sanders’  sister  Judith,  and  we  can  easily 
picture  the  two  young  women  living  in  the  noble  mansion 
we  now  know  as  the  Sawyer  Free  Library,  and  walking  its 
still  attractive  garden  paths. 

Col.  Paul  Dudley  Sargent  is  said  to  have  been  an  active 
and  valuable  officer  in  the  Revolutionary  war.  A study  of 
his  Revoluntionary  record  in  my  library  shows  that  he  was 
compensated  for  his  services  at  Lexington  and  Bunker  Hilb 
that  he  was  twice  appointed  a colonel  (of  the  Sixteenth  and 


THE  OLD  SARGENT  HOMES 


27 


Twenty-Eighth  regiments)  by  Washington,  and  was  elected 
colonel  of  the  First  Essex  regiment  by  the  Provincial  Con- 
gress, which  position  he  resigned  June  5,  1779?  having  to 
leave  the  state  for  a time. 

Another  record  shows  that  he  was  in  Amherst,  New 
Hampshire,  on  April  19,  1775,  and  that  he  immediately 
raised  a body  of  109  men,  and  marched  with  them  to  Con- 
cord. There  he  was  chosen  by  the  officers  of  seven  other 
companies  from  Hillsborough  County,  New  Hampshire,  as 
their  commander.  Two  days  later,  Gen.  Artemas  Ward 
ordered  him,  with  his  command,  to  Cambridge.  Being  a 
Massachusetts  commander  of  New  Hampshire  troops,  the 
committee  of  safety  took  a hand  in  the  situation,  and  ordered 
him  to  raise  a full  regiment,  assuring  him  that  if  New 
Hampshire  would  not  accept  it,  Massachusetts  would. 

After  the  war,  he  failed  in  business  and  retired  to  farming 
in  Sullivan,  in  the  District  of  Maine,  represented  the  town 
in  General  Court  and  held  many  offices  under  the  state 
and  national  governments.  A descendant,  the  present 
Paul  Dudley  Sargent,  honors  the  name  of  the  patriot 
ancestor  which  he  bears.  His  home  is  in  Augusta,  Maine. 
He  is  chief  engineer  of  the  state  highway  commission  of 
Maine. 

Mr.  Dudley  A.  Sargent  of  Cambridge,  head  of  the  Sar- 
gent and  Hemenway  gymnasiums,  is  another  well-known 
member  of  the  family. 

THE  IGNATIUS  SARGENT  HOUSE. 

I do  not  think  John  Sargent,  the  last  of  the  brothers, 
lived  in  either  of  the  five  houses  we  are  discussing.  If  he 
did,  it  must  have  been  upon  the  first  parcel  mentioned  in 
the  division  as  forming  part  of  the  allotment  to  Daniel  Sar- 
gent, and  immediately  adjoining  the  Epes  Sargent  house. 
Daniel,  or  Ignatius  Sargent,  his  second  son,  probably  built 


28 


CAPE  ANN  IN  STORY  AND  SONG 


the  mansion  upon  this  land  at  a later  date  than  the  con- 
struction of  the  other  houses.  It  belonged  to  Daniel  Sar- 
gent, and  was  sold  after  his  death.  In  1825,  Ignatius  Sar- 
gent, second,  of  Boston,  sold  property  lying  between  Spring 
and  Back  street  to  Richard  Friend,  ancestor  of  all  the 
Gloucester  family  of  Friends.  I have  already  referred  to 
Ignatius  Sargent  and  his  career  as  a merchant  in  both 
Gloucester  and  Boston.  Like  his  elder  brother  Epes,  John 
Sargent,  youngest  son  of  Col.  Epes,  was  a loyalist,  and 
removed  with  others  who  sympathized  with  his  views  to 
Barrington,  Nova  Scotia. 


THE  OLD  SARGENT  HOMES 


29 


CHAPTER  FOUR 

JUDITH  SARGENT  AND  JOHN  MURRAY. 

Nor  did  the  British  garden,  blooming  round 
Alone  engage  the  heavenly  laborer’s  toil ; 

With  watchful  eye  he  viewed  those  tender  shoots 
Wilholm  transported  to  Columbia’s  soil; 

Those  tender  lambs  he  gently  led  along, 

And  to  their  plaints  still  bent  a parent’s  ear. 

— Rev.  John  Murray  on  the  death  of  Chatham. 

Judith,  eldest  of  the  children  of  Capt.  Winthrop  and 
Judith  (Sanders)  Sargent,  married  first,  John  Stevens,  and 
went  to  live  in  the  famous  mansion  now  known  as  the 
Sargent-Murray-Gilman  house ; and  second,  Rev.  John 
Murray,  the  apostle  of  Universalism.  Judith  Sargent  was 
the  first  distinctively  literary  woman  of  Gloucester  birth  of 
whom  I have  any  knowledge.  She  was  to  the  literary  his- 
tory of  Cape  Ann  what  Abigail  (Smith)  Adams  (daughter 
of  a colonial  pastor,  wife  of  one  president  of  the  United 
States,  mother  of  another  and  first  mistress  of  the  White 
House)  was  to  that  of  Weymouth  and  Braintree.  Both 
were  voluminous  writers. 

Lucius  Manlius  Sargent  says  of  his  Cousin  Judith  : "She 
was  a most  kind,  affectionate  and  excellent  lady.  She 
wrote  poetry  by  the  acre.  That  was  her  stumbling  block.” 
Robert  Treat  Paine,  one  of  the  signers  of  the  Declaration 
of  Independence,  wrote  of  her  play,  "The  Traveller’s 
Return”:  "The  traveller  has  gone  to  that  bourne  from 
which  no  traveller  ever  did  return.”  From  Georgia  to 
Maine,  in  his  itinerant  preaching  tours,  Rev.  John  Murray 
appears  to  have  made  her  large  duodecimo  volumes  called 
"The  Gleaner,”  which  he  sold,  contribute  materially  to 
his  support  " preaching  universal  salvation  and  universal 
subscription.” 


3o 


CAPE  ANN  IN  STORY  AND  SONG 


Her  pen  name  was  " Honora  Martesia.”  Here  is  a brief 
sample  of  her  verse  : 

“Amid  the  haunts  of  memory  let  me  stray, 

As  duty,  love  and  friendship  point  the  way; 

With  hand  of  diligence,  and  humid  eye, 

The  faithful  record  tearfully  apply.” 

The  lines  appear  as  the  opening  of  her  contribution  to 
the  "Life  of  Rev.  John  Murray,”  of  which  two  editions  lie 
beside  me  as  I write.  I doubt  if  Lucius  Manlius  Sargent, 
when  he  playfully  reflected  on  his  aunt’s  voluminous  out- 
put of  verse,  considered  a fact  which  all  must  now  admit, 
that  gifts  that  were  to  distinguish  the  family  for  three 
succeeding  generations  first  found  expression  through  her. 

Abigail  Adams’  style  was  strong,  direct  and  earnest. 
She  wrote  on  the  events  of  the  hour,  usually  political 
events,  and  never  used  poetry  as  the  vehicle  of  her  thought, 
though  her  descriptive  powers  were  remarkable.  Judith 
Sargent,  too,  wrote  often  on  politics,  but  she  was  different — 
one  of  the  earliest  writers  I recall  to  use  the  ornate,  flowery 
style  that  so  distinguished  many  nineteenth  century  writers, 
her  nephew,  Lucius  Manlius,  among  the  number.  I do 
not  think  one  could  discover  in  Abigail  Adams’  published 
or  unpublished  writings  a single  sentimental  line,  though 
there  is  plenty  of  evidence  in  her  letters  and  journals  of 
her  love  for  and  constant  thought  of  her  husband  and 
children  and  her  nephews  and  nieces.  Judith  Sargent’s 
work  abounded  in  sentiment,  though  I do  not  doubt  that 
her  convictions  were  as  strong  as  those  of  Abigail  Adams. 

SOME  SIDE  LIGHTS  ON  REV.  JOHN  MURRAY. 

It  should  now  be  possible  to  look  at  some  of  the  pages 
of  Rev.  John  Murray’s  Life,  written  by  himself  and  his 
better  half,  and  place  him  in  the  environment  in  which  he 
found  himself  when  he  came  to  Gloucester.  This  was  in 


THE  OLD  SARGENT  HOMES 


31 


1774,  and  he  had  been  for  some  time  in  America,  whence 
he  came  from  his  home  in  England,  although  many  years 
of  his  young  manhood  were  spent  in  Ireland,  where  for  a 
time  he  was  a Wesleyan  Methodist  class-leader. 

His  father  was  a devoted  Christian,  but  a strong  believer 
in  the  calvinistic  doctrine  of  predestination,  these  views 
linking  him  more  with  the  followers  of  Whitefield  than  of 
Wesley.  But  the  former  does  not  appear  to  have  known 
the  elder  Murray,  while  Wesley  frequently  visited  in  his 
home. 

Wesley  could  not  abide  the  doctrine  referred  to,  much 
as  he  loved  Whitefield.  But  such  were  the  younger 
Murray’s  graces  that  Wesley  would  gladly  have  made  him 
one  of  his  preachers,  while  the  father  had  no  doubt  at  all 
that  his  son  was  a child  of  God.  The  time  came  when 
John  Murray  suspected  Wesley,  doctrinally,  as  much  as 
Wesley,  because  of  his  doubts  concerning  the  father, 
suspected  him.  In  time  the  young  man  came  to  know 
Whitefield,  whom  he  greatly  admired.  Soon  he  allied 
himself  with  Whitefield’s  society  in  the  London  Tabernacle. 

It  is  interesting  to  know  that  before  his  first  visit  to  Cape 
Ann,  Murray  went  to  Newburyport,  and  on  the  invitation 
of  Rev.  Mr.  Parsons  (in  whose  arms  and  at  whose  home 
Whitefield  died)  preached  in  the  old  South  Church,  still 
standing,  afterwards  learning  that  the  body  of  his  old 
friend  was  buried  in  a tomb  beneath  the  pulpit  where  he 
preached. 

Had  Whitefield  possessed  such  a genius  for  organization 
as  did  Wesley,  it  is  not  hard  to  believe  young  Murray  would 
have  come  to  this  country  as  a calvanistic  Methodist  preacher 
had  he  come  at  all ; but  the  great  evangelist  preferred  to 
preach,  and  to  use  his  eloquence  in  winning  money  to  carry 
on  his  orphanages ; so,  just  at  the  time  when  his  influence 
was  becoming  most  potent  with  the  youth,  Murray  heard  a 


32 


CAPE  ANN  IN  STORY  AND  SONG 


preacher  of  the  doctrines  of  James  Relly,  and  afterward, 
with  his  wife,  attended  Relly’s  preaching  in  London,  and 
joyfully  accepted  his  views. 

My  library  is  naturally  well  fitted  out  with  Wesleyana, 
but  neither  in  the  voluminous  histories  of  Methodism,  in 
the  lives  of  Wesley,  nor  the  earlier  editions  of  Wesley’s 
Journal  do  I find  any  reference  to  either  James  Relly  or 
John  Murray;  nor  do  I find  them  in  my  Memoirs  of 
George  Whitefield.  But  Murray’s  Life,  in  its  earlier 
chapters,  brings  us  immediately  into  the  presence  of  the 
two  great  evangelists,  and  furnishes  interesting  side-lights 
concerning  them — giving  almost  pen  portraits,  especially 
of  Wesley. 

This  article  will  make  no  attempt  to  discuss  Rev.  John 
Murray  or  his  views,  but  it  is  entirely  within  its  province 
to  sketch  briefly  the  devoted,  picturesque  preacher  of  the 
gospel  of  reconciliation  and  restoration,  who  could  not 
write  of  London,  of  Alton  in  Hampshire  (his  birthplace)  of 
Cork  (his  boyhood  home)  without  vividly  bringing  his  sur- 
roundings and  his  friends  in  view.  Soon  after  his  arrival 
in  this  country  he  preached  in  the  Old  Tennant  Church  in 
Upper  Freehold,  New  Jersey,  around  which  in  a few  years 
the  battle  of  Monmouth  was  to  rage,  the  church  building 
itself,  still  standing,  being  used  as  a hospital.  After  the 
sermon  he  engaged  in  a doctrinal  controversy  with  the 
pastor,  Rev.  William  Tennant,  for  whom  the  church  was 
named.  The  whole  scene  is  reproduced  in  the  Life  of 
Murray. 

parson  Murray’s  first  visit  to  Gloucester. 

But,  alas  ! The  picturesque  element  is  lacking  when  we 
turn  to  the  pages  which  describe  Mr.  Murray’s  invitation 
to  come  to  Gloucester,  six  months  before  the  Lexington 
fight,  and  his  response.  The  invitation  was  given  after 


THE  OLD  SARGENT  HOMES 


33 


one  of  Murray’s  meetings  in  Boston,  by  "Mr.  Sargent  of 
Gloucester  ” and  neither  Mr-  Murray  nor  Mr.  Babson  indi- 
cate which  Sargent  it  was.  It  would  be  following  the  line 
of  least  resistance  to  say  his  visitor  and  his  first  host  in 
Gloucester  was  Capt.  Winthrop  Sargent,  but  two  or  three 
points  should  be  considered. 

He  says:  "November  3d,  I repaired  to  Gloucester,  and 
was  received  by  a few  very  warm-hearted  Christians.  The 
mansion-house,  the  heart,  of  the  then  head  of  the  Sargent 
family,  with  his  accomplished  and  most  exemplary  lady, 
were  open  to  receive  me.” 

Winthrop  Sargent  had  not  then  built  his  mansion  house, 
and  his  older  brother,  Epes,  who  died  in  1779,  and  who 
in  1774  must  have  been  "the  then  head”  of  the  family, 
was  living  in  the  mansion  house  of  his  father,  Col.  Epes 
Sargent 

Another  point  to  be  considered  is  that  Mr.  Murray’s 
Life  was  edited  and  completed  by  Judith  Sargent  Murray, 
and  her  father,  Winthrop  Sargent,  was  always  known  as 
"Capt.”  Sargent,  the  title  being  not  military,  but  nautical, 
as  is  still  most  frequently  the  case  with  titles  in  Gloucester. 
Had  her  father  been  meant  in  Mr.  Murray’s  narrative,  she 
would  undoubtedly  have  made  the  point  clear,  as  she  does 
whenever  he  is  mentioned  as  the  story  proceeds. 

So  we  may  picture  the  first  preacher  of  Universalism  in 
America  in  the  original  Sargent  mansion,  the  guest  of 
Epes  Sargent,  Esq.,  but  surrounded  by  Capt.  Winthrop 
Sargent  and  others  of  the  noted  family.  Mrs.  Murray 
tells  us  that  practically  all  the  members  of  the  Sargent 
family  embraced  the  doctrines  preached  by  Mr.  Murray. 
As  he  looked  from  the  windows  of  the  mansion,  he  saw 
across  the  highway  the  smaller  house  of  Capt.  Winthrop 
Sargent,  soon  to  be  replaced  by  the  new  mansion,  but 
which  was  to  be  his  preaching  place,  and  usually  his 


34 


CAPE  ANN  IN  STORY  AND  SONG 


home,  until  the  building  of  his  chapel,  nearby,  and  until 
his  marriage  to  the  daughter  of  Capt.  Sargent,  thus 
becoming  the  master  of  the  far  more  famous  mansion 
on  Middle  street,  a short  distance  away. 

THE  SARGENT-MURlt AY-GI LM AN  HOUSE. 

“ To  thy  bowers  we  were  led  in  the  bloom  of  our  youth, 

From  the  home  of  our  infantile  years.” 

— Samuel  Gilman. 

It  takes  little  imagination  to  picture  the  mansion  in 
which  Widow  Judith  Sargent  Stephens  was  waiting  for  the 
event  which  was  so  signally  to  change  her  life,  for  we  have 
the  mansion  still.  Seated  on  a bluff  which  gave  its  occu- 
pants an  unobstructed  view  of  the  harbor  and  Eastern  Point, 
with  its  terraces,  ornamented  by  beds  of  flowering  plants  and 
vines,  leading  down  to  "Fore”  or  Front  street;  its  interior 
adorned  by  the  cunning  hand  of  workmen  as  skillful 
in  constructing  fine  stairways,  roomy  fireplaces  and  ornate 
mantles  as  their  fellow  workmen  of  Manchester  were  in  the 
construction  of  the  delicate  cabinet-work  which  doubtless 
went  to  furnish  the  charming  home ; its  wainscoting,  the 
delight  of  every  lover  of  the  beauty  of  Old  Colonial 
architecture,  beauty  which  modern  skill  seems  unable  to 
reproduce — what  a fascinating  home  it  was  into  which  to 
welcome  the  travel-worn,  world-weary,  but  still  militant  and 
devoted  itinerant,  who  might  well  have  said  with  Wesley, 
" The  world  is  my  parish  ! ” 

And  all  the  attractiveness  of  that  home  can  quite  easily 
be  understood  by  any  person  who  will  enter  the  mansion 
by  its  more  convenient  but  at  present  far  from  picturesque 
means  of  access  on  Middle  street  and  pass  through  its  fine 
old  rooms  to  the  now  disused  entrance  at  its  former  front. 
He  has  entered  by  Judith  Sargent’s  back  door,  but  he  may 
easily  imagine  he  is  gazing  through  her  long  closed  eyes, 
as  from  the  porch  he  sees  the  very  terraces  she  saw,  and 


THE  OLD  SARGENT  HOMES 


35 


observes  the  right-of-way  to  Main  street,  still  preserved, 
although  mercantile  buildings  now  occupy  what  was  doubt- 
less the  most  level  portion  of  her  garden,  and  other  buildings 
obstruct  what  must  once  have  been  one  of  the  loveliest  of 
the  many  lovely  marine  pictures  on  the  Cape. 

On  these  terraces  often  played  little  Julia  Maria  Murray, 
and  about  them  played  also,  not  many  years  later,  young 
Samuel,  son  of  Major  Frederick  Gilman,  who  was  soon  to 
go  through  Cambridge,  become  a clergyman  and  live  a 
useful  life,  but  who,  long  after  his  death,  was  to  be  remem- 
bered with  love  and  gratitude  by  successive  generations  of 
Harvard  men,  and  was  to  link  this  fine  old  place  forever 
with  his  alma  mater,  through  the  medium  of  an  immortal 
song. 

Where  is  the  poet  of  today  who  will  fitly  put  in  words  the 
spirit  that  haunts  the  halls  of  this  time-stained  but  still  in 
many  ways  matchless  old  mansion? 

It  is  true  you  can  still  find  some  splendidly  carved  wains- 
cotings  in  the  Royall  house  in  Medford,  but  so  many  have 
been  stripped  from  the  walls,  that  only  one  room  shows 
them  intact,  while  here,  in  room  after  room,  and  on  stair- 
way after  stairway  they  enchant  you.  Deputy  Governor 
Isaac  Royall  of  Medford  was  a Tory,  who  made  money 
selling  rum  in  the  West  Indies  and  fled  thither  when  the 
Revolution  broke  out.  His  former  slave  quarters  are  stand- 
ing and  out  in  his  dismantled  garden  is  a mound  upon  which 
once  stood  a summer  house,  where  the  governor’s  daughter 
may  or  may  not  have  listened  to  words  of  love. 

But  the  garden  terraces  are  still  outside  the  Sargent- 
Murray-Gilman  house,  and  its  fine  old  halls  are  intact, 
though,  standing  within,  the  visitor  may  naturally  recall 
the  words  of  Tom  Moore  : 

“ I feel  as  one  who  treads  alone 
Some  banquet-hall  deserted  ; 

Whose  lights  are  out,  whose  guests  are  flown, 

And  all  but  he  departed.” 


36 


CAPE  ANN  IN  STORY  AND  SONG 


THREE  POETS  HAVE  OCCUPIED  THE  HOUSE. 

Three  poets  of  whom  we  have  knowledge  have  lived  in 
this  house ; Judith  Sargent,  John  Murray  and  Samuel 
Gilman ; and  either  one  of  the  three  could  have  voiced  the 
spirit  of  the  place,  had  they  but  known  that,  because  they 
lived  there,  halos  of  history  and  tradition  would  invest  it 
with  compelling  interest  as  the  generations  passed.  What 
a conspicuous  mark  it  must  have  been  for  Capt.  Linzee’s 
gunners  on  the  fatal  day  when  the  Falcon  put  into  Glouces- 
ter harbor.  How  fortunate  that  the  doughty  captain  had 
his  eye  on  the  steeple  of  the  " Presbyterian  ” meeting  house 
near  by,  and  instead  bombarded  that,  thus  giving  the  gifted 
mistress  of  the  colonial  mansion,  soon  to  be  a manse,  an 
opportunity  to  witness  the  entire  engagement  from  the 
vantage  ground  of  its  upper  windows. 

When  the  historian  Prescott  (grandfather  of  Mrs.  Gover- 
nor Wolcott)  placed  on  his  study  walls  the  crossed  swords 
of  his  two  grandsires — Col.  William  Prescott  of  Bunker 
Hill  and  Captain  Linzee — he  but  anticipated  by  a half- 
century  the  era  of  good  feeling  that  now  exists  in  every 
American  heart  toward  the  country  that  in  i775  was  our 
enemy. 

A grandson  of  Judith  Sargent’s  cousin  Ignatius  was 
named  Charles  Linzee,  he  being  a son  of  Thomas  C. 
Amory,  the  noted  Boston  merchant,  thus  indicating  how 
close  was  the  family  feeling  resulting  from  the  marriage 
of  Capt.  Linzee  to  the  favorite  niece  of  John  Rowe,  the 
diarist  of  Revolutionary  days,  and  the  inventor  of  the 
sacred  codfish,  which  still  adorns  the  State  House.  She 
was  Capt.  Rowe’s  adopted  child,  and  his  diary  shows  how 
great  were  his  misgivings  when  she  gave  her  heart  to  the 
British  officer,  and  how  embarrassing  were  the  conditions 
when,  before  the  Bunker  Hill  battle,  Linzee  sailed  the 
Falcon  into  Boston  Harbor  and  persisted  in  being  a guest 


THE  OLD  SARGENT  HOMES 


37 


at  the  old  man’s  house.  It  was  many  months  thereafter 
before  Boston  ceased  to  regard  John  Rowe  as  a Tory;  but 
Boston  has  no  finer  patriots  today  than  may  be  found 
among  Capt.  Linzee’s  descendants. 

SOME  RECORDS  RELATIVE  TO  THE  MANSION  HOUSE. 

I do  not  know  that  Capt.  Winthrop  Sargent  built  and 
gave  the  Sargent-Murray  house  to  his  daughter.  Mr. 
Babson  says  of  it  that,  at  the  close  of  the  Revolution,  "it 
had  recently  been  erected,  and  was  occupied  by  John 
Stevens.  The  land  in  front  of  his  house,  extending  down 
to  Front  street,  was  laid  out  in  terraces,  and  tastefully 
arranged  as  a flower-garden,  as  befitted  the  home  of  the 
accomplished  lady  of  the  mansion,”  adding  in  a footnote 
" afterwards  Mrs.  Murray.”  In  another  place,  however,  he 
says  : "John  Stevens  was  a merchant  and  trader,  in  which 
occupation  he  met  with  no  success  and  finally  became  a 
bankrupt.  To  avoid  being  arrested  for  debt  he  fled,  in  a 
vessel  belonging  to  his  father-in-law  (Capt.  Winthrop 
Sargent),  to  St.  Eustatia,  where  he  died.” 

Judith  Sargent  Stevens  continued  to  live  in  the  house 
after  her  husband’s  flight  and  death,  and  it  is  significant 
that  when  the  heirs  of  Capt.  Winthrop  Sargent  sold  the 
house  to  Major  Frederick  Gilman,  April  28,  i797>  the 
deed  was  signed  by  Judith  Sargent  "in  her  right.”  The 
other  signers  were  Gen.  Winthrop  Sargent,  by  his  attorney 
(he  being  in  Mississippi),  John  Murray,  "clerk,”  John 
Stevens,  Esther  Ellery  and  Fitz  William  Sargent.  The 
sale  was  for  $3,333,  land  and  buildings  on  Fore  and 
Middle  streets,  69  feet  front  on  Fore  street  and  121  feet  on 
Middle  street,  and  the  deed  states  that  this  land  was  sold 
to  John  Stevens  by  John  and  James  Babson.  One  has 
only  to  glance  at  the  map  in  Mr.  Babson’s  History  of 


38 


CAPE  ANN  IN  STORY  AND  SONG 


Gloucester,  and  read  his  reference  to  the  Widow  Isabel 
Babson,  the  founder  of  the  family  on  Cape  Ann,  to  know 
that  the  home  of  that  good  lad}^  the  first  medical  practi- 
tioner on  the  Cape,  was  on  this  very  spot,  other  portions  of 
her  home-lot  having  remained  in  the  Babson  family  for  a 
century  and  a half. 


THE  OLD  SARGENT  HOMES 


39 


CHAPTER  FIVE 

JOHN  MURRAY  IN  GLOUCESTER. 

Amid  the  haunts  of  memory  let  me  stray, 

As  duty,  love  and  friendship,  point  the  way, 

With  hand  of  diligence,  and  humid  eye, 

The  faithful  record  tearfully  supply. 

— Judith  Sargent  Murray , in  Murray’s  “Life.” 

December  22,  1774,  Mrs.  Murray  tells  us,  Mr.  Murray 
made  his  second  visit  to  Gloucester,  his  journal  saying 
" Here  my  God  grants  me  rest  from  my  toils ; here  I have 
a taste  of  heaven.  The  new  song  is  sung  here,  and 
' worthy  is  the  Lamb  ’ constantly  dwells  upon  their  tongues.” 
But  "the  heaven-instructed  preacher,”  as  she  terms  him, 
sought  to  forward  his  work  in  Portsmouth  for  a time. 
Opposition  drove  him  again  to  Gloucester.  " Attached  to 
the  Gloucesterians,”  she  writes,  " Mr.  Murray  once  more 
believed  he  had  found  a permanent  residence.” 

I do  not  need  to  tell  the  story  of  his  experiences  in  the 
years  that  followed  ; but  through  all  the  tale  of  his  buffet- 
ings  by  the  waves  of  opposition  and  his  final  success,  the 
loyalty  and  devotion  of  the  members  of  the  Sargent  family 
to  him  and  to  his  teaching  shines  luminously. 

In  October,  1788,  at  Salem,  he  was  married  to  Mrs. 
Judith  Stevens  ; and  from  date,  as  long  as  he  lived,  the 
story  of  his  travels  and  work  was  her  story.  He  had  just 
returned  from  a missionary  visit  to  England,  bearing  cre- 
dentials from  his  friends  in  Boston  and  Gloucester.  The 
Gloucester  statement  was  as  follows  : 

"Gloucester,  January  4,  1778. 

"Be  it  known  universally,  that  We,  the  elders,  on  behalf 
of  the  Independent  Church  of  Christ  in  Gloucester,  do 
certify  that  the  bearer,  Mr.  John  Murray,  is,  and  has  been 
for  many  years  past,  our  ordained  minister,  and  we  pray 
God  to  preserve  him,  and  return  him  to  us  in  safety.” 


4° 


CAPE  ANN  IN  STORY  AND  SONG 


The  statement  is  signed  by  Winthrop  Sargent,  Epes 
Sargent  and  David  Plummer.  The  Boston  credential, 
Mrs.  Murray  naively  remarks,  "was  signed  by  the  most 
respectable  members  of  the  church.” 

Some  years  ago  I was  fortunate  enough  to  come  into 
possession  of  an  original  copy  of  "An  Appeal  to  the 
Impartial  Public  by  the  Society  of  Christian  Independents 
Congregating  in  Gloucester,”  printed  in  Boston  by 
Benjamin  Edes  & Son,  MDCCLXXXV,  and  in  a fine 
state  of  preservation.  In  an  appendix  is  the  uniting  com- 
pact of  the  Gloucester  society,  signed,  it  is  stated,  by  all 
the  members,  but  the  names  are  not  given.  The  Appeal  is 
the  work  of  a scholarly  person,  and  if  it  was  written  by 
Mr.  Murray  indicates  some  of  the  characteristics  that  made 
him  a forceful  preacher.  Mrs.  Murray’s  literary  work 
shows  that  she  was  well  equipped  to  have  written  it.  If  it 
was  the  work  of  Epes  Sargent  (as  recently  stated  in  print) 
or  of  Winthrop  Sargent,  one  can  easily  understand  why 
so  many  of  the  race  have  been  successful  writers. 

Mrs.  Murray  heads  the  closing  chapter  of  her  husband’s 
life  with  these  words  : 

“ Portentiously  the  dense,  dark  cloud  arose  ; 

Long  was  the  night,  surcharged  with  clustering  woes  ; 

But,  blest  Religion,  robed  in  spotless  white, 

With  torch  of  faith,  pointing  to  realms  of  light, 

Marched  splendid  on;  wide  o’er  the  brightning  way, 

Leading  the  saint  to  never-ending  day.” 

As  evidence  of  the  difference  in  style  of  the  two  writers, 
I quote  here  a few  passages  from  Rev.  John  Murray’s 
tribute  to  the  Earl  of  Chatham.  Mrs.  Murray  refers  to 
them  as  " inartificial  lines,  written  one  hour  after  he 
received  intelligence  of  the  demise  of  the  celebrated  and 
meritorious  ” man  : 


THE  OLD  SARGENT  HOMES 


41 


“ In  this  great  legislator’s  land,  our  flag, 

Like  that  famed  wand  into  a serpent  changed, 

As  Hebrew  sages  sung  in  days  of  yore. 

Made  every  other  flag  obsequious  bow, 

And  every  other  nation  owned  or  felt  his  power. 
But,  while  remotest  lands  through  fear  obeyed, 
His  grateful  country  served  with  filial  love, 

And  every  son  of  Albion  shared  his  care. 

Nor  did  the  British  garden,  blooming  round, 
Alone  engage  the  heavenly  laborer’s  toil ; 

With  watchful  eye  he  viewed  those  tender  shoots, 
Whilom  transplanted  to  Columbia’s  soil; 

Those  tender  lambs  he  gently  led  along, 

And  to  their  plaints  still  bent  a parent’6  ear. 
Dear,  much-loved  offspring  of  this  happy  Isle  ! 
With  us,  sincere,  ye  mourn  the  common  loss; 
With  us  lament  the  father  and  the  friend.” 


rev.  mr.  Murray’s  burial  place. 

Mr.  Murray  died  in  Boston,  Sunday,  September  3,  1815, 
and  his  funeral  occurred  on  the  following  day.  The  devo- 
tion of  the  Sargents  of  Boston,  many  of  whom  had  been 
his  parishoners  in  Gloucester  before  their  transplanting, 
was  shown  by  his  interment  in  the  Sargent  family  tomb 
in  the  Granary  Burying  Ground. 

The  history  of  this  tomb  would  be  interesting.  It  prob- 
ably had  been  built  long  before  the  Sargents  reached  Bos- 
ton. At  about  this  period  Gov.  James  Sullivan,  who  bore 
so  conspicuous  a part  as  counsel  for  Mr.  Murray  and  the 
Gloucester  church  in  the  case  against  the  first  church,  at 
which  Thophilus  Parsons  defended  the  latter  (the  presid- 
ing justice  being  Hon.  Francis  Dana,  father  of  the  poet, 
Richard  Henry  Dana),  secured  from  the  authorities  the 
right  to  use  as  a family  tomb  the  tomb  of  Richard  Belling- 
ham, one  of  the  earliest  governors,  in  the  Old  Granary 
ground.  Its  site  was  directly  adjoining  the  site  of  the 
present  Tremont  Building,  and  the  drainage  at  the  ceme- 


42 


CAPE  ANN  IN  STORY  AND  SONG 


tery  was  so  defective  that,  when  the  tomb  was  opened,  the 
casket  of  Gov.  Bellingham  was  found  afloat. 

Twenty-two  years  after  his  death,  Mr.  Murray’s  body 
was  removed  from  the  Sargent  tomb,  and  after  being  taken 
to  the  church  where  he  had  so  long  ministered,  where  appro- 
priate services  were  held,  was  buried  in  a plot  at  Mount 
Auburn,  beneath  an  appropriate  shaft. 

Five  years  after  his  death,  June  6,  1820,  Judith  Sargent 
Murray  died,  in  Natchez,  Miss.,  at  the  home  of  her  only 
daughter  Julia,  who  married  Adam  Lewis  Bingaman  in 
1812.  In  1824  Lucius  Manlius  Sargent,  at  Natchez, 
viewed  (as  he  states,  with  melancholy  feelings),  on  Mr. 
Bingaman’s  plantation,  three  graves,  side  by  side  — that  of 
his  favorite  cousin,  Mrs.  Judith  Sargent  Murray;  her 
daughter  Julia  Maria  Bingaman,  and  of  her  grand-daughter 
Charlotte. 


GOV.  WINTHROP  SARGENT. 

Capt.  Winthrop  Sargent’s  namesake  and  oldest  son,  Gov. 
Winthrop  Sargent,  was  two  years,  lacking  four  days, 
younger  than  his  sister  Judith,  his  birth  occurring  May  1, 
1753,  and  he  died  just  three  days  before  her,  June  3,  1820  ; 
but,  strangely  enough,  he  did  not  die  near  her,  at  his 
magnificent  estate  (called,  in  honor  of  his  boyhood  home, 
Gloster  Place)  just  out  of  Natchez,  but  at  New  Orleans. 

He  had  decided  to  remove  to  Philadelphia,  where  other 
Sargents  had  preceded  him,  and  was  on  his  journey.  He 
had  appointed  his  widow  executrix  of  his  great  property, 
and  had  appointed  residents  of  five  different  states — Mis- 
sissippi, New  York,  New  Jersey,  Pennsylvania  and  Mas- 
sachusetts— as  co-executors ; but  as  he  died  in  Louisiana 
none  of  them  could  act. 

For  years  he  had  been  a martyr  to  the  gout.  Benj.  K. 
Hough  wrote  of  him  in  1845  : "I  knew  him  as  Governor  of 


THE  OLD  SARGENT  HOMES 


43 


the  Mississippi  Territory,  and  when  here  (in  Gloucester), 
visiting  his  parents,  as  an  elegant  and  accomplished 
gentleman.” 

Daniel  Scott,  a merchant  of  Boston,  was  in  his  old  age 
an  inmate  of  the  Philadelphia  Hospital.  There  Lucius 
Mauilus  Sargent  visited  him.  Mr.  Sargent  was  warned 
by  Mr.  Mason,  the  worthy  Quaker  superintendent,  as  fol- 
lows. "If  friend  Scott  knoweth  aught  of  thy  relations  to 
their  prejudice,  thee  may  prepare  thyself  to  hear  of  it”. 
"Friend  Scott,”  said  Mr.  Mason,  "Here  is  friend  Sargent 
come  to  see  thee  from  Boston.” 

Scott  jumped  up  and  looked  sharply  through  the  grating. 
"Yes  ” said  he,  " that’s  a Sargent  face,  what’s  your  father’s 
name  ?” 

"The  same  as  your  own,”  was  the  reply,  "Daniel.” 

"Old  Daniel?” 

" Aye.” 

"God  never  made  an  honester  man.  What  relation  are 
you  to  Winthrop,  who  was  in  the  Revolutionary  war?” 
"Cousin,”  said  Mr.  Sargent,  "he  was  33  years  older 

than  I.” 

"Well,”  said  Mr.  Scott,  "he  was  the  only  man  who  could 
contrive  to  eat  off  a plate  in  the  American  army.” 

Graduating  from  Harvard  College  in  1771,  Winthrop 
Sargent  became  captain  of  one  of  his  father’s  ships.  In 
July,  1775  > he  quitted  the  ocean  for  the  camp,  soon  becom- 
ing captain  of  artillery  in  the  mortar  batteries  at  Roxbury, 
and  of  course  was  with  his  guns  on  Dorchester  Heights  at 
the  evacuation  of  Boston.  He  was  then  ordered  to  New 
York,  was  with  Gen.  Lee  in  the  march  through  New  Jersey, 
was  in  Gen.  Glover’s  brigade  in  the  battle  of  Trenton, 
served  as  major  of  artillery  and  was  wounded  in  the  battle 
of  Brandywine,  was  with  Gen.  Wayne  at  Germantown  and 
participated  in  the  sufferings  at  Valley  Forge.  After  the 


44 


CAPE  ANN  IN  STORY  AND  SONG 


war  he  became  secretary  and  adjutant-general  with  St. 
Clair,  governor  of  the  Northwest  Territory. 

He  was  wounded  in  the  terrible  battle  of  the  Miami 
villages.  Gen.  St.  Clair  died  in  the  Alleghany  hills,  years 
after,  the  keeper  of  a grog  shop.  Sargent  heard  the  cry 
of  the  Sioux  early  on  the  morning  of  the  battle.  He  was 
lying  in  his  birth  suffering  tortures  with  the  gout,  sprang 
up,  filled  his  boots  with  cold  water,  thrust  in  his  feet,  and 
entered  the  fray.  "Nothing,”  he  afterwards  said,  "ever 
struck  him  so  horribly  as  the  yell  of  those  Sioux.” 

He  was  appointed  governor  of  the  Mississippi,  Territory 
by  President  John  Adams,  and  removed  by  Jefferson.  In 
politics  he  was  a Federalist. 

Gov.  Winthrop  Sargent,  like  his  sister,  Judith  Sargent 
Murray,  wooed  the  muses.  In  1803  he  published  a poem 
entitled  "Boston,”  and  as  early  as  1716  published  "Papers 
Relative  to  Certain  American  Antiquities.”  His  name- 
sake, son  of  George  Washington  Sargent  and  grandson  of 
Gov.  Winthrop  Sargent,  born  in  Philadelphia  in  1825, 
lived  most  of  his  life  in  New  York  City.  He  was  both  a 
lawyer  and  an  author,  most  of  his  works  being  on 
historical  subjects. 

EPES  SARGENT. 

Epes  Sargent,  editor,  poet  and  dramatist,  was  born  in 
Gloucester  in  1813,  and  was  educated  in  Harvard.  From 
1846  he  was  for  years  editor  of  the  Boston  Transcript. 
He  wrote  four  dramas,  published  one  volume  of  poems, 
several  miscellaneous  works  and  many  school  textbooks. 
Apropos  of  his  work  as  a dramatist,  it  is  worth  remarking 
that  he  left  no  descendants,  but  that  the  youngest  Epes 
Sargent  of  this  generation  is  a successful  author  of  moving 
picture  plays. 

An  interesting  problem  in  priorities  is  furnished  by  the 
following  quotation  from  the  pen  of  Epes  Sargent.  Did 


THE  OLD  SARGENT  HOMES 


45 


Longfellow  get  the  story  for  " The  Wreck  of  the  Hesperus  ” 
from  this  verse  ? I have  heretofore  shown  that  Richard 
Norman  lived  at  Kettle  Cove,  and  doubtless  owned  the 
Norman’s  Woe  rock.  Sargent  writes  : 

“ From  the  main  shore  cut  off  and  isolated 
By  the  invading,  the  circumfluent  waves, 

A rock,  which  time  had  made  an  island,  spread 
With  a small  patch  of  brine-defying  herbage, 

Is  known  as  Norman’s  Woe;  for  on  this  rock 
Two  hundred  years  ago,  was  Captain  Norman, 

In  his  good  ship  from  England  driven  and  wrecked 
In  a wild  storm,  and  every  life  was  lost.” 

The  late  William  Winter  wrote  this  portrait  of  Sargent : 

" Epes  Sargent,  who  wrote  " A Life  on  the  Ocean  Wave,” 
which  the  popular  vocalist,  Russell,  always  sang  "A  Life 
on  the  Ocean  Sea,” — was  prominent  then,  and  being  a 
townsman  of  mine,  as  Whipple  was  (we  were  all  natives  of 
Gloucester),  he  was  friendly  toward  me  and  propitious 
toward  my  verse.  A dapper,  elegant  little  man  he  was, 
neatly  attired,  swinging  a thin,  polished  back  bamboo  cane, 
and  seeming  the  embodiment  of  cheer.” 

JOHN  SINGER  SARGENT. 

It  is  pleasing  to  know  that  in  these  mature  days  of  John 
Singer  Sargent’s  career  he  is  not  only  completing  his  fine 
mural  decoration,  "The  Pageant  of  Religion,”  in  the 
Sargent  hall  of  the  Boston  Public  Library,  but  that  he  also 
has  a commission  to  furnish  the  mural  decorations  for  the 
central  hall  of  the  Museum  of  Fine  Arts  in  Boston.  Sar- 
gent was  born  in  Florence,  Italy,  1856,  the  son  of  Dr.  Fitz- 
William  Sargent  (son  of  Winthrop,  grandson  of  Fitz 
William  and  great-grandson  of  Capt.  Winthrop  Sargent)  a 
Philadelphia  physician,  born  in  Gloucester,  who  retired 
from  practice  and  went  to  Europe  to  live  in  1855.  His 
wife  was  an  accomplished  painter  in  water  colors.  Sargent 


\6  CAPE  ANN  IN  STORY  AND  SONG 

became  a pupil  of  Carolus  Duran,  at  Paris,  at  the  age 
of  18,  and  from  that  period  on  his  career  as  a painter  has 
been  one  of  unbroken  success.  Since  1884  he  has  made 
his  home  in  London,  but  his  paintings  and  his  portraits  are 
everywhere.  In  1909  he  gave  up  portraiture.  In  1912 
there  was  an  imposing  exhibition  of  his  water  colors  in 
London  and  New  York,  of  which  the  Brooklyn  Museum 
purchased  83  examples  and  the  Boston  Museum  of  Fine 
Arts  45. 


PROF.  CHARLES  SPRAGUE  SARGENT. 

Prof.  Charles  Sprague  Sargent,  the  eminent  arborcul- 
turist,  was  born  in  Boston  in  1841,  graduated  at  Harvard 
in  1862,  served  in  the  Federal  army,  became  director  of 
the  Arnold  Arboretum  in  1872  and  professor  in  Harvard 
1879.  His  publications  are  many,  all  of  a scientific 
character.  His  father,  the  second  Ignatius  Sargent,  was 
long  a director  of  the  Boston  and  Albany  Railroad,  of 
which  Prof.  Sargent  has  been  the  president  for  many 
years. 

To  turn  for  a moment  to  the  daughters  of  this  interesting 
family  other  than  Judith  Sargent:  The  first  (or  second) 
William  had  a daughter  Ann,  who  married  Nathaniel 
Ellery.  She  lived  to  be  90  years  old,  her  home  being  at 
the  corner  of  Front  and  Hancock  street,  where  it  stood 
until  1840.  David  Plummer  occupied  the  premises  long 
before  her  death,  apparently,  and  I think  she  became  the 
mistress  of  the  second  Nathaniel  Ellery,  or  Gilbert,  house. 
Sarah,  daughter  of  Col.  Epes  Sargent,  married  Nathaniel 
Allen,  and  was  the  original  of  a famous  portrait  by  John 
Singelton  Copley,  for  which  she  sat  32  times.  Babson 
apparently  thought  the  portrait  was  of  her  aunt  Ann,  just 
mentioned.  None  of  her  descendants  are  living. 


THE  OLD  SARGENT  HOMES 


47 


SAMUEL  GILMAN. 

A while  ago,  the  Times  printed  a biographical  sketch 
of  Samuel  Gilman,  and  I will  not  attempt  to  reproduce  it. 
He  had  a long  and  useful  career  as  a scholar,  pastor  and 
preacher,  but  one  touching  Gloucester  as  lightly  as  the 
careers  of  some  other  noted  sons.  He  has  been  referred 
to  as  a poet,  and  it  is  interesting  to  note  that  twice  he  made 
a Harvard  celebration  the  occasion  for  a commemoration 
poem.  He  graduated  in  1811,  wrote  " Fair  Harvard  ” for 
the  200th  anniversary  in  1835,  and  the  commencement 
poem  for  the  Class  of  1811  on  its  40th  anniversary, — it 
being  published  by  Tickner,  Reed  & Fields  in  1852. 
Viewing  it  in  its  personal  aspect,  he  made  a direct  refer- 
ence to  the  Sargent-Murray-Gilman  house,  in  the  second 
verse  of  "Fair  Harvard,”  already  quoted: 

“ To  thy  bowers  we  were  led  in  the  bloom  of  our  youth, 

From  the  home  of  our  infantile  years.” 

In  the  second  poem,  " The  Pleasures  and  Pains  of  a 
Student’s  Life,”  he  recalls,  under  the  caption  "1852 — 
Sequel”  the  scenes  of  the  commemoration — the  day  which, 
through  "Fair  Harvard,”  made  him  famous.  He  writes: 

“ Who  can  forget  that  famed  centennial  year 

When  Harvard  hailed  her  sons  from  far  and  near? 

What  joy,  what  beckonings,  what  exchanged  surprise, 

As  at  each  other  flashed  inquiring  eyes  ! 

How  changed,  yet  how  the  same,  ourselves  we  found 
Since  last  we  parted  on  that  classic  ground.” 


4§ 


CAPE  ANN  IN  STORY  AND  SONG 


CHAPTER  SIX. 

LATER  HISTORY  OF  THE  SARGENT  HOMES. 

During  the  afternoon  of  July  30,  1794,  on  the  morning  of  which  day 
the  great  fire  occurred  in  Boston,  three  pirates,  brought  home  in  irons, 
on  board  the  brig  Betsey,  Captain  Saunders,  belonging  to  Daniel  Sargent, 
were  hung  on  the  Common  ; and  three  governors,  sitting  in  their  chairs, 
would  not  have  drawn  half  the  concourse,  then  and  there  assembled. 
— Lucius  Manlius  Sargent , writing  on  old-time  amusements,  in  “ Dealings 
with  the  Dead.” 


While  pale  with  rage  the  white  surf  springs 
Athwart  the  harbor  bar, 

The  safe  ships  fold  their  snowy  wings 
Beneath  the  evening  star  : 

In  this  calm  haven,  rocked  to  sleep, 

All  night  they  swing  and  sway, 

Till  mantles  o’er  the  morning  deep 
The  golden  blush  of  day. 

— William  Winter,  “ At  Anchor.” 

Little  Good  Harbor  Beach  shall  be  our  point; 

So  called  because  an  Indian  once  pronounced 
The  harbor  “ little  good  ” meaning  “ quite  bad.” 

Running  out  southerly  the  ocean  side 

Of  Eastern  Point;  its  lofty  landward  end 

Gray  with  huge  cliffs,  there  shall  you  mark  Bass  Rock, 

Rare  outlook  when  a storm-wind  from  the  east 
Hurls  the  Atlantic  up  the  craggy  heights. 

— Efes  Sargent. 


Dead  ! he  so  great,  and  strong,  and  wise, 
While  the  mean  thousands  yet  drew  breath ; 
How  deepened,  through  that  dread  surprise, 
The  mystery  and  the  awe  of  death  1 

From  the  high  place  whereon  our  votes 
Had  borne  him,  clear,  calm,  earnest  fell 
His  first  words,  like  the  prelude  notes 
Of  some  great  anthem  yet  to  swell. 


THE  OLD  SARGENT  HOMES 


49 


We  seemed  to  see  our  flag  unfurled, 

Our  champion  waiting  in  his  place 
For  the  last  battle  of  the  world 
The  Armageddon  of  the  race. 

— John  Greenleaf  Whittier , on  the  death  of  Rantoul. 

This  chapter  is  an  afterthought.  The  publication  of 
the  preceding  numbers  had  aroused  such  kindly  interest, 
and  resulted  in  so  many  appreciative  words,  that  when  I 
was  asked  to  complete  (as  well  as  circumstances  would 
permit)  the  story  of  the  old  Sargent  homes  and  their  occu- 
pants in  succeeding  generations,  for  the  gratification  of  a 
not  unreasonable  curiosity,  I found  I shared  the  curiosity 
myself,  and  therefore  addressed  myself  to  the  task. 

As  the  story  I had  told  largely  dealt  with  the  Revolu- 
tionary era,  it  occurred  to  me  that  an  excellent  starting 
point  would  be  to  look  up  the  old  mansions  after  the  lapse 
of  nearly  a century,  at  the  opening  of  the  Civil  War. 
Mr.  Babson’s  priceless  History  of  Gloucester  was  published 
in  i860,  and  in  the  chapter  reviewing  the  houses  on  Main 
(that  is,  Front,  Fore  and  Spring,  in  those  days),  Middle 
and  Prospect  (then  High  and  Back)  streets  at  the  close  of 
the  Revolution  he  would  generally  say  whether  a house 
was  still  standing,  but  with  no  statement  concerning  its 
later  owner  or  occupant. 

Gloucester’s  first  directory  and  almanac. 

So  I bethought  me  of  the  Gloucester  Directory  and 
Almanac  for  i860.  It  stands  in  my  library  with  my  file 
of  Boston  Almanacs  (being  of  the  same  size),  which  more 
than  bridges  the  gap  between  my  Massachusetts  Registers 
(1780-1849)  and  Manuals  of  the  General  Court,  which 
cover  the  past  50  years.  This  Gloucester  Directory  has 
the  bookplate  of  the  late  John  Stevens  Ellery  Rogers. 
John  Stevens  Ellery,  his  great-grandfather,  was  born  in 


5o 


CAPE  ANN  IN  STORY  AND  SONG 


the  Nathaniel  Ellery  house  (the  then  gambrel-roofed  house 
at  the  junction  of  Western  avenue  and  Fore  street  that  we 
know  as  the  Gilbert  Home)  and  married  Esther,  daughter 
of  Capt.  Winthrop  Sargent.  John  Stevens  Ellery  built 
one  of  the  first  three-story  houses  in  Gloucester,  on  Middle 
street,  which  recently  made  way  for  the  Young  Men’s 
Christian  Association  building.  His  own  grandmother, 
wife  of  the  first  Nathaniel  Ellery,  was  Ann  Sargent  (aunt 
to  Capt.  Winthrop  Sargent)  so  that  John  S.  E.  Rogers, 
who  in  later  years  occupied  the  site  of  the  Winthrop 
Sargent  mansion,  corner  of  Main  and  Duncan  streets,  as  a 
business  location,  was  a descendant  of  the  Sargent  family 
in  two  lines. 

But  in  i860  the  Winthrop  Sargent  mansion  was  the 
home  of  the  Gloucester  Lyceum,  which,  in  a few  years 
more  was,  through  the  generosity  of  Samuel  E.  Sawyer, 
to  find  a permanent  resting  place  in  the  childhood  home 
of  Judith  (Saunders)  Sargent,  the  first  mistress  of  the 
Winthrop  Sargent  mansion.  The  Lyceum  then  boasted  a 
library  of  2,200  volumes.  My  good  friend,  John  D. 
Woodbury,  tells  me  that  when  he  was  a pupil  in  the  High 
School  he  was  in  the  habit  of  making  daily  visits  to  this 
library,  which  was  in  the  Duncan  street  side  of  the  first 
floor,  entered  from  Spring  street,  for  books.  Soon  after 
(in  1864)  came  the  most  serious  of  the  great  fires  that  have 
periodically  devastated  Front  street,  and  the  historic  old 
home  was  sacrificed,  being  successfully  blown  up  to  stop 
the  progress  of  the  flames,  thus  saving  the  Daniel  Sargent 
mansion  and  much  other  valuable  property. 

I suppose  Dr.  Fitz  William  Sargent  (father  of  John 
Singer  Sargent)  was  the  last  famous  Sargent  to  be  born  in 
the  Winthrop  Sargent  house.  His  birth  occurred  in  1820. 
His  brother,  Winthrop  (the  fifth  Winthrop  in  as  many 
generations)  was  born  two  years  later. 


THE  OLD  SARGENT  HOMES 


Si 


THE  DANIEL  SARGENT  MANSION. 

The  next  house,  number  9 Spring  street,  was  in  i860 
the  home  of  James  Mansfield,  grocer,  and  was  known,  as 
it  is  still  known,  as  the  " Mansfield  ” house,  having  been 
deserted  by  the  Sargent  family  fifty  years  before.  Daniel 
Sargent  left  it  at  the  close  of  the  Revolution,  turning  it 
over  to  his  son  Ignatius,  the  father  residing  for  a time  in 
Newburyport,  and  then  settling  permanently  in  Boston. 

I have  already  pictured  Daniel  Sargent  as  he  was  known 
in  Boston,  but  would  like  to  add  that  through  his  life  he 
specialized  in  mansions.  His  first  home  in  Boston  was  on 
Atkinson  (now  Congress)  street,  near  High  street,  and  the 
description  of  it  that  remains  pictures  a house  and  grounds 
of  an  almost  spectacular  splendor.  This,  too,  he  eventu- 
ally left,  for  a home  at  the  corner  of  Essex  and  Lincoln 
streets,  even  more  spacious  and  attractive.  The  inventory 
of  his  estate  in  the  Suffolk  probate  records  in  1806,  details 
its  sumptuous  furnishings  room  by  room.  In  fact,  it  was 
never,  I think,  occupied  as  a private  dwelling  again,  being 
purchased  by  one  of  the  many  charitable  organizations  of 
the  day  to  house  its  beneficiaries.  At  his  death,  his  old 
home  on  Atkinson  street  was  in  the  occupancy  of  Ignatius 
(who  had  already  left  the  Spring  street  house  for  Boston) 
while  two  other  houses  owned  by  Daniel  Sargent  on  the 
same  street  were  occupied  by  William  Paine  and  Isaac 
Rich.  Good  old  Daniel  must  have  numbered  Isaac  Rich 
among  the  protegees  he  brought  up  from  Cape  Cod,  and 
the  students  of  Boston  University,  which  Isaac  Rich 
founded,  should  revere  his  memory.  Daniel  Sargent’s 
one-third  right  in  Long  Wharf,  Boston,  Store  No.  15,  was 
valued  at  $10,000. 

Daniel  Sargent  left  property  valued  at  $7  >45°  in  Glouces- 
ter. It  included  the  house  and  land  adjoining  the  Col. 


52 


CAPE  ANN  IN  STORY  AND  SONG 


Epes  Sargent  mansion,  opposite  his  homestead  ; the  land 
on  which  the  "Universal”  chapel  stood,  bounded  on  the 
west  by  land  of  Ignatius  Sargent  (that  is,  the  homestead ;) 
the  mowing  ground,  or  " old  flake  yard,”  about  where 
Rogers  street  now  runs ; a house  and  garden  by  the 
wharf;  the  old  (original)  wharf  for  repairing  vessels;  the 
new  wharf,  store  and  cooper’s  shop ; the  Goodridge 
pasture  on  Back  street;  a piece  of  land  in  Dogtown  and 
land  at  Eastern  Point.  Five  undivided  sixths  of  all  this 
property  was,  in  1807,  released  to  Major  Ignatius  Sargent 
by  his  brothers,  in  consideration  of  a payment  of  $10,  the 
release  also  including  the  homestead  property  later  known 
as  the  Mansfield  House.  This,  of  course,  empowered  the 
Major  to  give  a clear  title  of  the  property  to  prospective 
purchasers,  and  in  1808  he  disposed  of  most  of  it  to 
different  individuals. 

Gloucester’s  old  wharves. 

The  brothers  Procter  omitted  a list  of  the  Gloucester 
wharves  in  their  i860  Directory,  and  Mr.  Babson,  while 
giving  fine  histories  of  some  of  them,  omitted  to  identify 
them;  but  twenty  years  later  in  "The  Fishermen’s  Own 
Book  ” the  omission  was  corrected.  The  Sargent  wharf 
at  the  foot  of  Duncan  street,  long  the  property,  succes- 
sively, of  Capt.  Winthrop,  Fitz  William  and  his  son 
Winthrop,  Sargent,  Benjamin  Kent  Hough  and  Frederick 
G.  Low,  had  passed  into  the  hands  of  John  G.  Bennett; 
Andrew  Leighton  owned  what  was  earlier  known  as 
Daniel  Sargent’s  "new  ” wharf;  and  the  name  of  Caswell’s 
wharf  was  attached  to  the  original  wharf  of  Daniel 
Sargent,  long  used  for  graving  or  repairing  vessels ; while 
the  famous  Col.  Pearce  wharf,  earlier  the  property  of 
Col.  Epes  Sargent  and  his  son  Epes,  had  become  the 
property  of  Michael  Whalen  and  Son. 


THE  OLD  SARGENT  HOMES 


S3 


In  1808,  as  I have  said,  Major  Ignatius  Sargent  sold  to 
Col.  Pearce  the  lot  where  the  Bradford  Building  now 
stands  " adjoining  the  small  meeting  house  lately  occupied 
by  the  Universal  Society,”  and  including  the  lane  leading 
to  his  wharves  (Water  street)  ; to  Jonathan  Brown  the 
"old  flake  yard  near  the  John  Lowe  estate,”  just  described  ; 
to  Perez  Lincoln  the  house  next  the  ancestral  mansion 
(of  Col.  Epes  Sargent),  reserving  the  right  to  use  the  well 
for  the  new  owner  of  the  Daniel  Sargent  mansion,  oppo- 
site ; and  to  Capt.  Theodore  Stanwood  the  homestead 
property  of  his  late  father,  Daniel  Sargent.  He  also  sold 
to  Arthur  Caswell,  who  gave  his  name  to  it,  the  old  wharf, 
and  a dwelling  house  and  land  on  the  site  referred  to,  for 
$1,200,  and  land  in  what  was  called  the  Goodridge  pasture 
on  Back  street  to  Elijah  Foster  and  Joseph  Trask.  Hence, 
I suppose,  "Trask’s  Oaks.”  I have  elsewhere  told  the 
story  of  little  Dorcas  Foster  of  Dogtown,  who  spent  so 
much  of  her  life  in  the  little  old  house  near  Warner,  on 
Back  street. 

Though  Major  Sargent  seems  to  have  pretty  well  sold 
out  in  1808,  he  did  not  lose  his  interest  in  Gloucester  and 
the  old  homes,  for  in  1829  we  find  him  joining  with  Peter 
Chardon  Brooks  in  the  purchase  of  the  Winthrop  Sargent 
mansion.  I like  to  think  of  him,  however,  as  an  occupant 
of  the  Daniel  Sargent  house,  and  of  course  he  never  lived 
in  the  Winthrop  Sargent  house,  the  destruction  of  which  I 
have  described.  When  he  left  Cape  Ann  his  son  and 
namesake,  Ignatius,  was  a small  child.  In  time  he,  too, 
became  an  occupant  of  a famous  mansion,  the  Samuel 
Brooks  house,  still  standing,  in  Medford,  not  far  from  the 
great  park  where  Peter  Chardon  Brooks  made  his  home. 
Not  long  ago  I spoke  at  the  laying  of  the  corner-stone  of 
the  new  building  of  the  Medford  Historical  Society.  The 
corner-stone  was  the  door-stone  of  the  Peter  Chardon 


54 


CAPE  ANN  IN  STORY  AND  SONG 


Brooks  mansion,  the  house  where  his  nephew  and  niece, 
the  father  and  mother  of  Bishop  Phillips  Brooks,  first  met ; 
and  I recalled  the  stories  told  by  my  great-grandmother  of 
the  days  when  she  went  horseback  riding  with  her  cousin, 
Peter  C.  Brooks.  In  the  Samuel  Brooks  house  Prof. 
Charles  S.  Sargent  was  born,  growing  up  on  the  noble 
estate  his  father  later  purchased  in  Brookline,  which  is 
still  the  professor’s  home. 

CAPT.  THEODORE  STANWOOD. 

Theodore  Stanwood  was  born  in  the  West  Parish  in 
1775,  the  son  of  Zebulon  and  Mary  (Rust)  Stanwood. 
The  late  Barnard  Stanwood  bore  to  him  the  double  rela- 
tion of  nephew  and  adopted,  brother,  he  having  been  the 
son  of  Theodore’s  sister,  Hannah  Byles  Stanwood  (who 
married  Barnard  Lunnaway)  and  adopted  by  the  grand- 
father, Zebulon,  after  his  mother’s  death.  Mr.  Babson 
speaks  of  Theodore  Stanwood  as  "an  intelligent  ship- 
master” and  his  portrait,  reproduced,  with  much  of  his 
correspondence  with  his  son  and  namesake,  Theodore,  in 
Mrs.  Ethel  Stanwood  Bolton’s  "History  of  the  Stanwood 
Family,”  fully  justifies  the  term.  He  was  an  intimate 
friend  of  Major  Ignatius  Sargent,  who  was  the  adminis- 
trator of  his  estate.  Just  before  the  War  of  1812,  Capt. 
Stanwood,  with  his  son  Theodore,  sailed  from  Gloucester 
for  Europe,  leaving  his  wife,  Sarah,  daughter  of  Rev.  John 
Rogers,  in  the  Daniel  Sargent  house,  with  the  rest  of  his 
family.  Before  they  could  start  on  their  return  voyage 
war  was  declared  between  England  and  the  United  States. 
Rather  than  risk  the  dangers  of  such  a voyage,  Capt. 
Stanwood  placed  his  son  in  school  at  St.  Petersburg,  while 
he  spent  months  in  travel  and  study  in  Sweden,  Denmark 
and  Russia.  The  letters  referred  to  were  written  in  this 
period,  and  are  preserved  by  the  Stanwood  family  of  Cincin- 


THE  OLD  SARGENT  HOMES 


55 


nati.  In  April,  1814,  the  father  sailed  for  home,  but  was 
drowned  on  the  passage,  and  the  last  letter  reproduced  by 
Mrs.  Bolton  is  that  written  by  Ignatius  Sargent  to  the  son, 
still  in  Russia,  conveying  the  intelligence  of  his  father’s 
death,  and  written  in  much  the  formal  but  sympathetic 
language  Mr.  Sargent’s  brother,  Lucius  Manlius,  would 
have  used  in  like  circumstances. 

In  October,  1818,  Mrs.  Stanwood  was  granted  her  right 
of  dower  in  the  old  house,  she  being  assigned  the  eastern 
half,  from  the  centre  of  the  front  door  to  the  garret,  in  a 
direct  line  to  the  fence  between  the  upper  and  lower 
garden ; also  the  whole  of  pew  No.  2 in  the  meeting- 
house of  the  First  Parish.  In  1824  Amelia  Sargent, 
daughter  of  Theodore  and  Sarah  (Rogers)  Stanwood, 
married  Rev.  Andrew  Bigelow,  D.  D.,  at  about  that  time 
preaching  in  Gloucester.  He  was  a grand-nephew  of 
Col.  William  Prescott,  who  commanded  at  Bunker  Hill, 
and  brother-in-law  of  Hon.  Abbott  Lawrence,  minister  to 
Great  Britain.  A few  months  later  Amelia’s  elder  sister, 
Sarah,  married  John  Woodward  Low,  long  prominent  in 
the  business,  civic  and  financial  affairs  of  Gloucester,  who 
thenceforth  became  an  occupant  and  ultimately  the  owner 
of  the  ancient  mansion,  until  it  passed  into  the  hands  of 
the  Mansfield  family,  by  whom  it  was  sold  to  the  late 
Thomas  B.  Ferguson. 

DR.  CHARLES  H.  HILDRETH. 

Before  passing  to  a study  of  other  Sargent  houses,  it 
should  be  stated  that  in  i860,  Dr.  Charles  H.  Hildreth,  long 
an  active  physician  and  useful  citizen  of  Gloucester,  had  his 
office  at  No.  9 Spring  street,  in  the  Daniel  Sargent,  or 
Mansfield  house.  He  was  a native  of  Gloucester,  the  son 
of  Rev.  Hosea  Hildreth,  from  1825-1833  pastor  of  the 
First  Parish,  and  Richard  Hildreth,  the  historian,  was  his 


56 


CAPE  ANN  IN  STORY  AND  SONG 


brother.  A sister  married  James  Mansfield,  which  doubt- 
less accounts  for  his  presence  in  the  famous  old  house; 
and  in  that  house,  a year  before  (Jan.  22,  1859)  his 
mother  had  died.  The  first  Richard  Hildreth  lived  long 
in  Chelmsford.  His  daughter  Jane  married  Robert 
Proctor,  an  ancestor  of  mine.  Not  far  away,  in  Woburn, 
lived  Deacon  John  Wilson,  who  raised  a remarkable  family 
of  daughters.  His  daughter  Abigail,  at  the  age  of  17, 
married  Joseph  Hildreth,  and  they  were  ancestors  of 
Richard  and  Charles  H.  Hildreth.  Joseph  Hildreth  died 
early  and  his  widow  married  Jonathan  Barrett.  I am 
descended  from  the  second  marriage.  Abigail’s  sister 
Dorcas  married  Aaron  Cleveland  and  they  were  distant 
grand-parents  of  President  Grover  Cleveland.  Hannah 
Wilson,  a third  daughter  of  the  good  deacon,  was  thrice 
married,  her  second  husband  being  James  Proctor,  son  of 
Robert  and  Ann  (Hildreth)  Proctor  mentioned  above, 
President  Walker  of  Harvard  and  his  cousin,  my  great- 
grandmother (who  rode  horseback  with  Peter  C.  Brooks) 
being  their  grand-children.  Elizabeth  Wilson,  a fourth 
daughter,  married  Isaac  Hildreth,  brother  to  Joseph  and 
Ann.  So  much  concerning  a tangle  that  has  bothered 
more  than  one  genealogist. 


THE  OLD  SARGENT  HOMES 


57 


CHAPTER  SEVEN 

CONCLUSION. 

Farewell!  nor  mist,  nor  flying  cloud, 

Nor  night  can  ever  dim 
The  wreath  of  honor,  pure  and  proud, 

Our  hearts  have  twined  for  him  ! 

But  bells  of  memory  still  shall  chime, 

And  violets  star  the  sod 
Till  our  last  broken  wave  of  time 
Dies  on  the  shores  of  God. 

— William  Winter , on  Edwin  Booth. 

If  the  house  opposite  the  Ferguson  Block,  and  next  the 
Post  Office,  is  not  the  Ignatius  Sargent  house,  it  stands  on 
the  site  of  that  dwelling.  It  seems  to  be  the  original.  It 
was  the  "first  parcel ’’which  was  alloted  to  Daniel  Sargent 
in  the  Col.  Epes  Sargent  division,  belonged  to  Daniel  at  his 
death,  and  was  sold  by  Ignatius  to  Rev.  Perez  Lincoln. 
I have  been  unable  to  locate  its  occupant  in  a study  of  the 
i860  Almanac,  few  of  the  Spring  street  houses,  apparently, 
having  been  numbered  at  that  time  ; but  Mr.  Babson  speaks 
of  it  as  for  some  time  occupied  by  Samuel  Lane,  father  of 
Samuel  R.  Lane,  long  a prominent  merchant.  Twenty 
years  ago,  Eben  B.  Bray  lived  on  the  spot,  his  wife  having 
inherited  the  house  from  a Mrs.  Newell. 

Rev.  Perez  Lincoln  succeeded  Rev.  Eli  Forbes  as  pastor 
of  the  First  Church  in  1805,  having  been  born  in  Hingham, 
the  son  of  David  Lincoln.  Two  years  after  he  bought  the 
house  his  health  failed,  and  he  died  the  following  year. 
Before  his  death  he  gave  to  Thomas  Parsons,  merchant, 
of  whom  more  hereafter,  a quitclaim  deed  of  the  Col.  Epes 
Sargent  mansion,  so  long  to  be  known  as  the  Webster 
house,  at  the  corner  of  Fore  and  Pleasant  streets,  des- 
cribing the  bounds  of  the  property  with  great  accuracy. 
I do  not  understand  this  deed,  but  think  it  had  something 


58 


CAPE  ANN  IN  STORY  AND  SONG 


to  do  with  the  well,  through  which  the  dividing  line  ran, 
rights  in  which  were  reserved  to  Capt.  Stanwood  when 
Mr.  Lincoln  bought  his  property.  One  is  led  to  wonder 
whether  the  families  of  Epes,  Winthrop  and  Daniel,  the 
brothers,  and  of  Ignatius,  the  son,  all  used  the  well  as  their 
only  source  of  water  supply  in  earlier  days. 

In  1817,  Joanna  Quincy  Lincoln,  widow,  sold  the 
Lincoln  property  to  Capt.  Epes  Ellery.  Mr.  Babson 
erroneously  speaks  of  her  as  Sophia.  She  was  the  daugh- 
ter of  Thomas  Loring,  a prominent  citizen  ot  Hingham, 
and  was  named  for  her  grandmother,  Joanna  Quincy. 

Capt.  Ellery  was  long  the  owner  of  the  house.  In  1831 
he  sold  to  William  E.  P.  Rogers,  the  owner  and  editor  of 
Gloucester’s  first  newspaper,  the  Telegraph,  the  property 
adjoining  him  on  the  east,  which  he  bought  of  the  savings 
bank  in  1820.  I have  already  spoken  of  Capt.  Ellery  as 
grandson  of  the  first  Nathaniel  and  Ann  (Sargent)  Ellery, 
sister  of  Col.  Epes  Sargent.  He  was  a prominent  ship- 
master. 

THE  WEBSTER  HOUSE. 

I have  already  given  the  history  of  the  famous  Col.  Epes 
Sargent  House  ; its  history  when  it  became  the  Webster 
House  is  different.  When  Rev.  Mr.  Lincoln  bought  the 
Ignatius  Sargent  house,  it  adjoined  the  property  of 
Thomas  Parsons  (that  Thomas,  merchant,  I think,  son  of 
Isaac,  who  was  a representative  in  1808-1811  and  ended 
his  days  in  Boston.)  Ten  years  later,  when  Capt.  Epes 
Ellery  made  his  purchase,  the  old  place  belonged  to  Fitz 
William  Sargent,  who  sold  it  to  his  daughter,  Judith 
Williams,  immediately  after.  I would  advise  any  person 
who  follows  me  in  tracing  the  ownership  of  this  house 
to  look  for  some  transaction  between  "Williams”  and 
"Dumphy.”  In  my  studies,  I overlooked  the  fact  that 
Nathaniel  R.  Webster  had  his  name  legally  changed,  and 


THE  OLD  SARGENT  HOMES  59 

that  his  son,  Nathaniel,  bore  the  name  Dumphy  in  his 
early  life. 

I do  not  think  that  Hon.  Robert  Rantoul  ever  owned 
the  Col.  Sargent  house,  but  see  no  reason  to  doubt  that 
it  was  his  home  during  the  period  when  he  resided  in 
Gloucester,  1833-1839.  He  represented  the  town  in  the 
General  Court  in  1835-1838,  where  he  won  a wide  reputa- 
tion for  his  ability,  boldness  and  independence,  a reputa- 
tion which  culminated  in  brief  service  in  the  United  States 
Senate  in  1851,  he  having  been  elected  to  Congress  in  the 
same  year. 

Soon  after  Rantoul’s  return  to  his  native  town,  Beverly 
(the  lot  on  which  it  stood  having  been  selected  as  the  site 
of  the  new  Custom  House  and  Post  Office,  built  in  1854), 
the  house  was  moved  back  to  the  garden  plot  in  the  rear, 
and  turned  around  to  face  Pleasant  street.  At  about  that 
time  John  Peabody,  who  sold  the  house  to  Nathaniel  R. 
Webster,  opened  the  place  as  a hotel.  Six  years  later, 
Peabody  was  not  in  Gloucester.  Nathaniel  Webster  was 
a stable-keeper,  residing  on  Spring  street.  Careful  study, 
however,  reveals  the  fact  that  the  Webster  House  was 
entertaining  guests — a local  jeweler,  two  of  the  town’s 
milliners  and  several  fishermen.  The  most  notable  of 
those  sheltered  beneath  its  roof,  however,  was  a rising 
young  attorney,  Charles  P.  Thompson.  Judge  Thompson, 
like  Rantoul,  had  come  to  Gloucester  to  practice  law. 
However,  Mr.  Babson,  in  i860,  failed  to  name  him  as  a 
Gloucester  lawyer.  Years  after,  before  his  elevation  to  the 
bench,  he,  too,  was  to  represent  Rantoul’s  district  in 
Congress.  Who  in  Gloucester  fails  to  respect  Judge 
Thompson’s  learning,  revere  his  memory,  or  affectionately 
recall  his  genial  spirit  and  bubbling  wit?  One  of  his 
professional  associates  and  successors  in  practice  is  now 
the  owner  of  the  Col.  Sargent-Webster  house. 


6o 


CAPE  ANN  IN  STORY  AND  SONG 


THE  SARGENT-MURRAY-GILMAN  HOUSE. 

In  i860,  Capt.  George  Whittemore  Plumer  was  residing 
on  Middle  street — as  I suppose,  in  the  Sargent-Murray- 
Gilman  house.  There,  about  a quarter  of  a century  later, 
I found  him,  in  one  of  the  fine  old  parlors  I have  already 
described,  being  the  first  time  I ever  entered  the  famous 
dwelling.  Soon  after  Winthrop  Sargent  moved  to  Phila- 
delphia— about  1834 — he  and  his  wife  Emily,  with  Addi- 
son Plumer,  for  his  two  children,  gave  a quitclaim  deed  to 
the  Gloucester  Evangelical  Societ}'  of  land  at  Middle  and 
School  streets — the  latter  a lane — it  being  the  site  for  the 
society’s  church  building,  where  its  successor  now  stands. 
At  the  time  of  the  Revolution  the  house  on  this  lot  was  the 
home  of  Josiah  Haskell,  sexton  of  the  First  Church,  whose 
daughter  Mary,  I suppose,  married  Maj.  Plumer.  She 
was  mother  of  the  two  children,  but  not  of  George  Whitte- 
more Plumer,  son  of  the  Major  by  a second  wife.  A 
house,  soon  after  the  Revolution,  adjoined  this  property,  in 
which  I am  sure  Fitz  William  Sargent,  father  of  Winthrop, 
lived,  though  he  apparently  lived  also  in  two  houses  on 
Front  street,  one  the  Winthrop  Sargent  mansion. 

In  1802,  Esther  Ellery,  widow  of  John  Stevens  Ellery, 
in  the  presence  of  Ignatius  Sargent  and  Mary  S.  Allen, 
quitclaimed  her  right  and  title  to  the  Sargent-Murray- 
Gilman  property  in  consideration  of  $832.33  "heretofore 
paid  by  Frederick  Gilman,  merchant,  and  by  and  through 
him,  by  Benjamin  Kent  Hough,  merchant,”  the  document 
also  referring  to  previous  deeds  already  mentioned.  A 
month  before,  by  order  of  the  Court  of  Common  Pleas, 
Abigail  H.  Gilman,  administratrix,  had  sold  the  same 
house  to  B.  K.  Hough  for  $3,945,  so  that  Mrs.  Ellery’s 
deed  was  evidently  to  clear  the  title.  She  was  a daughter 
of  Capt.  Winthrop  Sargent  and  a sister  of  Judith  Sargent 


THE  OLD  SARGENT  HOMES 


6 1 


Murray,  her  home  being  in  the  fine  house  at  Middle  and 
Hancock  streets  I have  mentioned.  Here,  in  his  new  pur- 
chase, Mr.  Hough  was  to  live  for  more  than  a generation. 

I always  think  of  him  as  sort  of  a foster-brother  (or  son) 
of  the  Sargents.  Through  their  influence  he,  but  for  them 
a friendless  lad,  learned  the  lessons  of  prudence  and  thrift 
that  made  him  both  affluent  and  influential.  They  placed 
him,  as  a boy,  in  the  store  of  David  Plumer  (grandfather 
of  Capt.  George  W.  Plumer)  at  the  corner  of  Front  and 
Hancock  streets,  but  in  a few  years  we  find  him  in 
Winthrop  Sargent’s  counting  room,  and,  soon  after,  in 
business  for  himself.  He  died  in  1855. 

I hardly  need  detail  more  of  the  recent  story  of  the 
house  or  the  circumstances  that  led  to  its  preservation  by 
its  recent  owner,  whose  interest  in  rare  and  beautiful  old 
articles  of  furniture  made  it  possible  for  buyers  and  sight- 
seers to  see  all  in  such  a perfect  environment,  thus  becom- 
ing interested  in  the  preservation  of  the  mansion.  I 
purposely  refrain  from  giving  statements  connecting  cer- 
tain individuals  with  the  house,  where  a confusion  of  dates 
will  awaken  doubts  in  the  mind  of  the  reader. 

In  the  lapse  of  years  the  mansion  lost  its  frontage  on 
Main  (or  Front)  street.  The  i860  Directory  shows  Cyrus 
Story,  Jr.,  dealing  in  a variety  of  groceries  and  hardware 
at  95  Front  street,  a location  where,  as  a magistrate  and 
"trader,”  as  the  Vital  Records  term  him,  he  spent  the  rest 
of  his  good  and  useful  life,  his  premises  screening  the 
colonial  house  and  garden  from  passers-by.  I have  been 
told  by  one  who  was  a child  a few  decades  ago,  of  the 
interest  excited  in  her  mind,  as  she  played  about  the  Story 
premises,  by  Judith  Murray’s  neglected  terraces  and 
flowers. 


6 2 


CAPE  ANN  IN  STORY  AND  SONG 


OTHER  OLD  SARGENT  HOMES. 

I need  say  but  little  in  addition  of  the  homestead  of 
Madam  Ann  (Sargent)  Ellery  on  Front  street,  which  was 
standing  at  the  time  of  the  Revolution  (the  site  being  now 
occupied  by  Barker’s  drug  store).  Her  daughter  Mary 
married  Rev.  John  Rogers,  the  pastor  of  the  Fourth  Parish 
"Up  in  Town,”  and  the  latter’s  daughter,  Sally,  married 
Capt.  Theodore  Stanwood,  as  related.  Her  son,  Epes 
(named  for  Col.  Sargent,  her  brother)  lived  in  a house  on 
the  south  side  of  Middle  street  near  Pleasant.  Her  son 
Nathaniel  lived  in  the  mansion  now  known  as  the  Gilbert 
Home  during  the  Revolution.  Whether  this  was  built  by 
the  elder  or  younger  Nathaniel  Ellery,  in  1750,  I do  not 
know;  but  as  the  mother  (Ann  Sargent)  died  in  1782, 
aged  90,  over  20  years  after  her  husband,  I think  she  died 
in  the  house  and  probably  lived  there  over  30  years.  It  is 
interesting  to  reflect  that  when  she  died,  Mrs.  Mary  H. 
Gilbert,  who  celebrated  her  centenary  (I  shall  never  forget 
that  birthday  party)  in  the  house,  was  a little  child,  and 
that  the  lives  of  the  two  mistresses  of  the  mansion  covered 
almost  two  hundred  years  of  the  history  of  Gloucester, 
reaching  back  into  the  first  half-century  of  its  settlement. 
What  a fine  gentleman  of  the  old  school  Addison  Gilbert 
(the  last  owner  and  donor  to  the  public  of  the  mansion) 
was  ! 

Ann  Sargent  had  a brother  Andrew,  born  1683. 
Whether  he  had  children  I do  not  know,  but  in  1818 
Judith,  daughter  of  an  Andrew  and  Rachel  (Brown) 
Sargent,  sold  to  William  Beach  a dwelling  house  and  land 
on  the  north  side  of  Middle  street,  between  the  estate  of 
Thomas  Saunders  and  that  of  John  Somes,  which  came 
from  her  father’s  estate. 

Among  Col.  Paul  Dudley  Sargent’s  sons  was  Dr. 


THE  OLD  SARGENT  HOMES 


63 


I 


I 


Thomas  Sargent,  whose  son,  Capt.  Dudley  Sargent,  was 
born  in  1769,  and  for  a time  resided  in  Newburyport.  He 
married  Hannah  Peters  Fuller,  daughter  of  Rev.  Daniel 
Fuller,  the  famous  Revolutionary  chaplain  of  the  West 
Parish.  The  wife  became  an  historical  personage  at  the 
early  age  of  three  and  one-half  years,  her  father  adding  to 
the  story  of  the  Lexington  fight,  in  his  since-published 
diary,  "Hannah  Peters  began  to  go  to  school.”  The 
couple  lived  in  the  old  country  parsonage,  had  a son  Paul 
Dudley,  and  another,  Daniel  Fuller,  Sargent. 

Early  in  this  study  I commented  on  the  leadership  of  the 
Sargents  in  the  development  of  Gloucester.  This  cannot 
be  emphasized  too  strongly.  I have  classed  the  Sawyer 
Library  building  among  the  group  identified  with  the  Old 
Sargent  homes.  The  first  mistress  of  that  mansion  was 
Judith  (Robinson)  Saunders,  who  gave  her  name  to  her 
daughter  Judith  (Saunders)  Sargent  and  the  latter’s  daugh- 
ter Judith  (Sargent)  Murray.  Judith  Robinson  was  the 
daughter  of  Capt.  Andrew  Robinson,  who  invented  and 
built  the  first  schooner.  Gov.  Winthrop  Sargent,  by  the 
way,  left  to  his  son,  George  Washington  Sargent,  of 
Philadelphia,  the  basin  used  in  administering  the  rite  of 
baptism  by  Rev.  John  Robinson,  the  Pilgrims’  pastor  in 
Leyden,  in  Holland,  who  is  claimed  to  have  been  grand- 
father of  Capt.  Andrew  Robinson.  The  Sargents  were 
leaders,  not  only  in  the  fishing  trade,  but  in  the  establish- 
ment of  foreign  commerce  in  Gloucester.  When  eight 
residents  at  the  Harbor  decided  to  secure  a meeting-house 
nearer  than  that  on  the  Green,  "Up  in  Town,”  by  building 
it  at  their  own  charges,  Col.  Epes  Sargent  was  the  leader 
in  the  movement,  and  the  First  Parish  moved  to  the 
church.  Col.  Epes’  son  and  namesake  invited  John 
Murray  to  Cape  Ann,  his  son  Winthrop  sheltered  him,  and 
another  son,  Daniel,  provided  the  site  for  his  chapel, 


64  CAPE  ANN  IN  STORY  AND  SONG 

though  Daniel  kept  his  pew  in  the  First  Church  and  took 
another  in  the  First  Church,  on  Cornhill,  when  he  moved 
to  Boston.  The  Sargents  shared  the  town  offices  in  turn, 
and  from  generation  to  generation.  Capt.  Winthrop 
Sargent  and  his  nephew,  Epes,  were  in  the  convention  of 
1 779,  which  formed  the  State  Constitution.  The  last 
Winthrop  Sargent,  who  removed  to  Philadelphia  in  1834, 
was,  it  is  said,  so  universally  trusted  that  money  in  his 
hands  was  considered  as  safe  as  though  in  a bank. 
Although  business  disaster  overtook  him,  his  financial 
reputation  was  doubtless  well  deserved  (for  bank  presidents 
were  common  in  the  family,  and  one  member  was  long 
State  treasurer)  ; while  success  and  honor  came  from  the 
misfortune  which  prompted  his  migration,  for  no  member 
of  the  family  has  won  greater  fame  than  has  his  grandson, 
John  Singer  Sargent. 


